Sam Raimi Tortures His Characters

I do have to give Sam Raimi props for doing something I never expected. Some may argue that Drag Me To Hell was his return to horror and I am one of those people, but again that is debatable. What’s not debatable is what Raimi put Christine through in the movie. Raimi has created a character that we immediately identify with and feel sympathy towards and then right when we think everything is working out for her she gets… dragged to hell. In other words, Raimi took the opportunity to deliver a swift kick in the nuts to us viewers but let me elaborate.

Christine is working her ass off to become the assistant manager at the bank she works at. She is competing with another co-worker who happens to be a tool and a suck-up. In effort to show her boss that she is capable of making hard decisions, she refuses a load extension to an elderly lady who happens to be a gypsy. She puts a curse on the poor girl despite the fact that she was doing her job and she was doing it so that she could have a better life for herself but the gypsy shows no mercy. Already you can’t help but feel for her because she was only doing the right thing.

But now, lets take a look at some of the other things that the poor girl had to go through while this curse was taking it’s toll on her.

- The gypsy attacked her in her car.

- The gypsy literally gummed her and pulled her hair.

- Constant psychological torment by the demon.

- The gypsy ghost vomited maggots and dirt on her.

- The gypsy’s dead body puked up embalming fluid on her.

- The gypsy ghost punched her in the mouth.

- She had to kill a baby kitten.

- The demon threw her around the room.

- She’s been called names.

- Her boyfriend’s parents think she’s crazy.

- The corpse of the gypsy threw up dirt and mud into her mouth.

- The corpse of the gypsy also tore some of her hair off.

- The demon also threw her across a room.

I’m sure there is much more that happened to her but this is what I can remember right off the bat. Remember, this happened to her all because she did her job to secure a good position at the bank she worked at and then things go downhill from there. In the end, she thinks she got rid of the curse and actually… in the prime of her life, bought a nice but pricy blue coat for her to show that things will be all right. Then, the Earth opens up and demonic hands grab her and drag her to hell anyway. It just goes to show you that Sam Raimi has to compassion for his characters but we like it that way.