Friday, October 27, 2017

Favorite (Horror) Scene Friday! Drag Me To Hell: The Button

Drag Me To Hell holds a special place in my heart. I'm a pretty big fan of director Sam Raimi's body of work, including The Evil Dead and Spider-Man franchises, along with random stuff like Darkman. So Drag Me To Hell was a treat for me. I even remember seeing this and Up the same night. The film - which followed our heroine Christine (Alison Lohman) as she tried to fight off a gypsy curse - had solid scares and atmosphere and Raimi of course nailed it.

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The scene below - which is literally the end of the film, so, spoilers - finds Christine having supposedly dealt with the gypsy curse that's plagued her throughout the film. She reunites with her boyfriend Clay (Justin Long) and it's here we see the bond between these two characters really shine through. Christine admits to Clay that her troubles throughout the film were maybe a little bit her fault, but Clay tells Christine that she's a good person. I should note here that I don't care much for Alison Lohman in this role. I think Christine maybe needed to be a little meaner to make what inevitably happens to her make sense. Justin Long, however, is fantastic as Clay. Long has a charm and an earnestness and genuineness. I had an idea for a sequel starring his character - Save Me From Hell. Pretty self explanatory: Clay figures out what happened to Christine and somehow goes down to hell to save her. Admit it - it would be pretty amazing to see Raimi's depiction of hell.

Anyway, with the fake happy ending over, Clay pulls out the cursed button (Christine was supposed to return it to the gypsy's grave to avoid hell but she accidentally left her with Clay's coin instead) and Christine, shocked, falls on the tracks. Not only is a train speeding towards her, but a hole appears under her and demons reach out, pulling her down to hell ("Holy shit, it's actually happening!" everyone watching the movie for the first time thought) as her body begins to decay and burn. Clay tries to save Christine, selflessly reaching down for her, but the train rolls over her. Justin Long completely nails the reaction of a man who just had to watch the love of his life get pulled down to hell. Tears streaming down his face, he glances one last time at what's got to be the most ominous button of all time. One can only hope he started planning his rescue mission right then and there.




What's your favorite scene from Drag Me To Hell?

Would you like to see a sequel?

2 comments:

  1. This is such a great review, I will definitely be watching the film. However, I am skipping watching the video at the end, as that would lead to spoilers, and I am not a fan of those.

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