Drag me to Hell

A double helping 'o Sam Raimi

Spontaneous association:
Whoever came up with that poster remembered Pleasure Planet
That title was written to fit the The Evil Dead poster

Unfair juxtaposition:
Two times Sam Raimi,
One a deserved classic in horror history with a non descript title
The other a classic title to a…



The Pleasure Planet accusation might be unfair, it is a common motive throughout horror history, this picture of a beautiful woman getting ‘dragged to hell’, so the influence can stem from any number of illustrations, the named one was just the one most ready on my mind because, I’ll admit, I think that motive to be sizzling hot.
And calling Drag me to Hell practically bland is not only pre- but immature in this case, I’ll admit now and here that it was only done for the sake of playing a joke on the two posters/titles.




I have actually a lot of trust in Raimi when it comes to horror movies, The Evil Dead, once I managed to get over my prejudices against it, which were illogically based on the huge success it had, proved to be a remarkable movie shot on a shoe string budget.
The following sequel, while unnecessary seeing how it is the same story with a higher budget, is a genuinely funny horror comedy and The Gift proved again that Raimi is a talented director that can really scare you.



Now, if Drag me to Hell should really be advertised with the words “From the Director of Spider-Man” is debatable, opinions on the quality of those movies vary. Personally I’d say Raimi wanted to make something for a young audience, for the twelve year olds that buy and read Spider-Man, not for the forty something collectors that still buy Spider-Man but long since stopped to care about the stories, and in that he succeeded; once we accept the premise we get wonderful popcorn-munchers driven by a talented group of actors.

As Inspirations go, not sure who begat whom here: