Horror is a weird genre. Whereas the goals of other genres are to produce a positive reaction in the audience (i.e. laughter, excitement, education, empathy, or inspiration), horror's purpose is to scare. And thus instead of pretty pictures, we get ugly ones. Instead of likable characters we get serial killers. Instead of a storyline bent on adventure and exploration, we get a siege in a confined claustrophobic space. A horror movie can quickly become an anti-movie, purposely composed with everything one doesn't go to the movies for. I have always felt that horror aficionados have some of the lowest standards of all cinema. A movie can score a 15% on RottenTomatoes, but if the makers find some new way to kill a guy, there's no telling how many millions they can make on the opening weekend. Still, every once in awhile a horror movie earns the acclaim of bonafide movie critics and mainstream audiences. Drag me to Hell just may be one of those exceptions.
I won't recommend this movie because of about fifteen seconds I vehemently disagree with, but for several reasons, the rest of the two hour movie deserves some amount of praise. It at least is on a far superior level than those terrible insults to humanity called the "Saw" franchise, or put more aptly, 'Torture Porn.'
1st Reason: Creativity in Shocking. This movie is PG-13 unbelievably. They gave it that rating not because the movie isn't scary, it very much is. That rating was bestowed because besides one very bloody nose, there is absolutely no blood in this movie. That's right: No decapitations, no prolonged torture, no tied up victims screaming obscenities, no knives or guns or devilish traps at all. Instead the movie uses actual suspense, evil gypsies, ancient curses, goat demons, freaky lighting, dark music, and projectile vomit to shock and scare us. Sure, projectile vomit is still disgusting (and terrifying when it consists of maggots) but it doesn't have the lasting damage to our psyche as torrents of blood do.
Second Reason: Someone actually hired a set designer, a costume designer, a makeup artist, and a cinematographer to work on this film. What I mean is that the whole thing doesn't take place in someone's dark and dreary basement. There are scenes that take place outside, there are scenes that take place at work, there are scenes that take place in a spooky but beautifully crafted gothic townhouse. Some of the sets are still quite devilish and haunting to look at, but they are still something to look at. The movie is well made. Someone put in the effort to make the supernatural look realistic. The special effects don't look like I did them. I credit the director, Sam Raimi (Spider Man and Evil Dead trilogies) for all of this.
Third Reason: Respect for the main character who happens to be a woman. It is the horror genre's deep shame that a lot of these movies are simply vehicles for sadistic scenarios that give sad solitary men the intended pleasure of watching women suffer. Alison Lohman plays the heroine of this story and many terrible things happen to her, but unlike the worst horror movies where the victims are dehumanized, the heroine is portrayed in a largely empathetic way. Watching this movie, I wanted Lohman to get the promotion at her job. I wanted her to be able to impress her boyfriend’s parents. I especially didn’t want her to get dragged down to hell.
And this is also the main reason I cannot recommend this movie I spent two hours witnessing this poor woman going through all these trials. I am rooting for her the entire way. By the end I really like her and am glad that there’s a chance for a really happy ending in store for her. But then, (SPOILER ALERT!!!) the last fifteen seconds rear their ugly head. There is a terrible misunderstanding and this girl is actually dragged down to hell where the goat demon feasts on her soul for all eternity. And I’m just sitting there; somewhat shell-shocked from it all, and the more I think about it, the more I am just disgusted by the whole injustice of it all. The girl wasn’t a bad person. The only sort of wrong thing she did was to deny an extension on an old gypsy woman’s mortgage, and this she did because her boss was going to give her rightful promotion to the new guy (total A-hole.) Even if denying that mortgage extension was wrong, the shit she went through during the three days she was cursed should have been more than enough penance. What strikes me the most is that there is no lesson here. Watching this movie is like watching “Jaws,” but at the end instead of Roy Scheider blowing up the shark and paddling back to shore with Richard Dreyfuss, Roy blows up the shark only to fall prey to a second previously unseen great white shark comes that tears him apart and eats him as Dreyfuss looks on in abject horror. The least this movie could have done is had a ‘To Be Continued’ at the end of the movie. Make us think that in the next movie the boyfriend (Justin Long) will go into the depths of hell and save her. But no, instead we get the credits. At least we know who’s responsible: Sam Raimi the writier/director. Not cool, Sam Raimi, not cool.
No comments:
Post a Comment