History Film / DragMeToHell

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* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Literature/{{Thinner}}'', [[WholePlotReference which also involves]] an upper class protagonist in a RaceAgainstTime to remove a gypsy curse from them before their time is up.

* InfantImmortality: Averted in the prologue, which features a 10 year-old or so boy being [[AndIMustScream doomed to burn in Hell for all eternity]].

* CatScare: While Clay drives Christine home, Mrs. Ganush apparently attacks the car on the driver's side . . . except it isn't Mrs. Ganush, but an old man cursing her with spite reminiscent of the old lady . . . [[OhCrap wait a second]], [[ParanoiaFuel where's the envelope]]? [[spoiler: This CatScare allows Christine to make her fatal mistake.]]

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Despite all attempts to cancel out the curse and save herself from eternal damnation, Christine ends up being pulled down into the burning flames of Hell all the same.]]

-->-- Sylvia Ganush

* [[BadassGrandpa Badass Grandma]]: For an old woman, Sylvia Ganush, the gypsy who sets the Lamia's curse on Christine, puts up a formidable fight[[spoiler: and wins]].

* [[CreepyChangingPainting Creepy Changing Corpse]]: Christine sees the corpse of Mrs. Ganush staring straight ahead, directly at her; after she talks to Mrs. Ganush's granddaughter while standing to the side of the coffin, she looks at the corpse again to see its eyes looking at her sideways; again, when she digs it up from its grave, its eyes are looking upwards, at her.

* FireAndBrimstoneHell: According to [[spoiler: the ending and]] Rham Jas' book, this is what Hell looks like [[spoiler:, and Christine ends up being dragged there. Her skin starts to melt off as a result.]]

* MeaningfulName: Christine means "[[TakeThatAudience Follower of Christ]]"; Brown is the colour of her first jacket, from which the cuff button was taken and whose possessor was cursed with [[FireAndBrimstoneHell eternal damnation]].

* {{Yank The Dogs Chain}}: Christine actually gets two of these in the film. The first is after the ritual where it seems they successfully got the Lamia off her back. [[spoiler: Only to be told they just ''banished'' it away for the moment and the curse is still in effect. If that wasn't bad enough, the only one who could stop it just died using up all her energy]]. So she's given the button in an envelope and told to give it away to another poor sap to save herself. After a few considerations [[spoiler: Christine actually makes a surprisingly smart choice and tries to give it to Ganush, despite the fact she recently died.]] After much struggle, it seems she finally pulled it off and everything all peachy. Good things are happening to her and her BF and she are set for a romantic getaway. However while waiting on the train platform [[spoiler:said BF pulls out the button, it having gotten mixed up during a near car accident.]] And well... the rest is history.

->''To err is human;''
->''[[HopeSpringsEternal To forgive, Divine]].''
-->-- Alexander Pope

* RedemptionInTheRain: When Christine finally [[spoiler:emerges from the [[RiseFromYourGrave gypsy woman's grave]] in the rain, it montages into her taking a shower]]. [[spoiler:{{Subverted|Trope in that the rain stops pouring the moment after [[HoistByHisOwnPetard the deed]] [[KarmicDeath is done]]]].

* SadisticChoice: Offered to Christine [[spoiler: by Rham Jas the night before the final day: while the owner of the button will inescapably be [[DraggedOffToHell pulled into eternal Hell]], its owner is changeable, provided the benefactor willingly receives it; this means that Christine can give the button to another as a gift, and then the recipient, having accepted it, will become the button's owner and thus the target of damnation. Essentially or apparently, either she burns or someone else does]].

* CatScare: While Clay drives Christine home, Mrs. Ganush apparently attacks the car on the driver's side . . . except it isn't Mrs. Ganush, but an old man cursing her with spite reminiscent of the old lady . . . [[OhCrap wait a second]], [[ParanoiaFuel where's the envelope]]? [[spoiler: This CatScare allows Christine to make her fatal mistake.]]

** The ''very last'' shot of the film shows [[spoiler: Clay pulling a MASSIVE one. After witnessing Christine being dragged to Hell, he can only look alternately at the train tracks and at the cursed button with a mix of horrified disbelief and heartbreak.]]

** The ''very last'' shot of the film shows [[spoiler: Clay pulling a MASSIVE one. After witnessing Christine being dragged to Hell, he can only look alternately at the train tracks and the cursed button with a mix of horrified disbelief and heartbreak.]]

** The ''very last'' shot of the film shows [[spoiler: Clay pulling a MASSIVE one. After witnessing Christine being dragged to Hell, he can only look at the train tracks, then at the button, and back at the tracks with a mix of horrified disbelief and heartbreak.]]

** The ''very last'' shot of the film shows [[spoiler: Clay pulling a MASSIVE one. After witnessing Christine being dragged to Hell, he can only look at the train tracks, then at the button, and back at the tracks with a mix of heartbreak and horrified disbelief.]]

* {{Jerkass}}: Stu, and arguably [[ObnoxiousInLaws Clay's mother]].

* TheKlan: Ingeniously referenced in the film's subtext. After [[AnimateInanimateObject Christine's slice of cake swallows her fork]] and [[ParanoiaGambit she believes that she can hear the Lamia lurking outside of Clay's parent's dining room]], she suddenly perceives that Clay and his parents are [[MotorMouth talking gibberishly quick]]; as suddenly, chatter subsides to calm and audible the instant Clay's mother asks Christine a "'yes' or 'no'" question on what was immediately previously discussed, apparently about her. Purely uncertain, guessing, and scared, she answers "no". This answer immediately sours the mood of all at the table, and Clay quickly corrects Christine that she ought have answered "yes". [[{{Horror}} While Christine attempts unsuccessfully to assess the total reality of her current state of torment]], Clay reassures his mother - through background chatter emanating from the foreground - that they did not, in fact, go to a [[UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan KKK]] meeting while they outed near Christine's mother's farm (presumably in one of the Southern States).

* PoorCommunicationKills: Evidently, the following is Clay's thought pattern before he meets Christine on the platform: "Why is there a coat button in this envelope? Oh, that's from Christine's jacket. I'll return it tomorrow." The first day of their holiday also happens to be the final day in the cycle of the curse. In the end, the trope is [[spoiler: PlayedStraight]].

* PoorCommunicationKills: Evidently, the following is Clay's thought pattern the night before his holiday with Christine: "Why is there a coat button in this envelope? Oh, that's from Christine's jacket. I'll return it tomorrow." The first day of their holiday also happens to be the final day in the cycle of the curse. In the end, the trope is [[spoiler: PlayedStraight]].

''Drag Me to Hell'' (2009) is Creator/SamRaimi's long-awaited return to the [[Franchise/EvilDead horror genre]]. The movie stars Alison Lohman as Christine Brown, a loan officer who forecloses on an old Gypsy woman's home for the sake of a promotion. This proves to be a big mistake, as Sylvia Ganush, the woman in question, proceeds to lay a curse on her that sets a horrendous demon on her to terrorize her for three days, after which she will be DraggedOffToHell. Now Christine must find a way to break the curse before she suffers this most awful of fates.

* AesopCollateralDamage: A Meta-example. In this fictional reality, [[spoiler: Christine and the young boy]] burn in Hell because that is arguably what the viewer wants: [[MeaningfulName the film's title]] suggests that the only reason anyone watched it was from a desire to be affected by the possibility (if it exists) of damnation. [[AuthorTract This is the point of the film]]. [[PoesLaw You may read it two ways]]: a meticulously and painfully well-paced joke, or as an incredibly pointed reminder of the greatest pitfall one can traverse on the path to enlightenment - the concrete and active pursuit of another's damnation. [[{{Camp}} You may, of course, watch it both ways]].

[[caption-width-right:295: "Baby, Hang On!"]]

[[caption-width-right:295: Hang in there.]]

''Drag Me to Hell'' (2009) is Creator/SamRaimi's long-awaited return to the [[Franchise/EvilDead horror genre]]. The movie stars Alison Lohman as Christine Brown, a loan officer who forecloses on an old Gypsy woman's home for the sake of a promotion. This proves to be a big mistake, as Mrs. Ganush proceeds to lay a curse on her, and now Christine has three days to try to break the curse if she wants to avoid getting DraggedOffToHell.

''Drag Me to Hell'' (2009) is Creator/SamRaimi's long-awaited return to the [[Franchise/EvilDead horror genre]]. The movie stars Alison Lohman as Christine Brown, a loan officer who forecloses on an old Gypsy woman's home for the sake of a promotion. ''Big'' mistake....

* AnvilOnHead: As Christine searches her garage for novelties that can be sold quickly to a pawn broker, an apparition of [[spoiler: Mrs. Ganush]] attacks her [[spoiler: pushing her against a pillar and shoving its fist down her throat]]. From where she stands, Christine sees taught rope holding an anvil in place above the apparition's head, which she then severs with the blade of one of her ice skates: the anvil crushes the apparition's skull, [[{{Squick}} shooting its eyes and the squished remains of the insides of its mouth]] [[RunningGag into Christine's]].
* [[BadassGrandpa Badass Grandma]]: For an old woman, Sylvia Ganush, the gypsy who sets the Lamia's curse on Christine, could put up a fight.

* CellPhonesAreUseless: When the Lamia attacks, Christine attempts to call Clay. Since [[AWizardDidIt this is a supernatural demon we're talking about]], it doesn't work; the Lamia drains the battery power in 5 seconds, [[JumpScare then has an image of Mrs. Ganush jumping at Christine appear on the screen]].

* DaylightHorror: [[spoiler: The final fright occurs in the middle of the day at a train station.]]

** Foreclose my house after repeated warnings? Force me to move in with my loving granddaughter? ''I'll condemn you to hell...''
** The poor 10-year-old kid who was condemned to hell for stealing a gypsy necklace, which his parents quickly attempted to returned to gypsies, who refused it (most likely because they knew the possessor of the necklace would burn in hell).
** {{Jerkass}} Stu almost gets cursed to hell for all eternity by Christine.

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: When the {{Jerkass}} Stu thinks Christy's found him out about taking her freelance contract, his biggest concern is ''his dad finding out''. Cue the Asian parents jokes.

* FacialHorror: [[spoiler:As she's being dragged to hell, the flesh on Christine's face starts melting off.]]

* FliesEqualsEvil: When a fly is present, it portents the GypsyCurse: when the parents of the ten-year-old boy reveal to Shaun San Dena the necklace he stole from the travelling Gypsies, a fly escapes from between the necklace and the blanket covering it before it hovers over the necklace and harasses Shaun San Dena (she shoos it away); after having been told by Rham Jas that someone had cursed her, a fly interrupts Christine's sleep - having entered her room through her open bedroom window - by crawling up and into one of her nostrils and out the other, then crawling into her mouth, subsequently waking her; the next day, while Christine attempts to compose herself during work, she hears the fly moving within her stomach before succumbing to a very powerful hallucination and [[HighPressureBlood a huge amount of blood loss from the orifices of her mouth and nose]] (these being the entry points the fly took the previous night); finally, [[spoiler: after sacrificing her cat to the Lamia (the goat-like demon tormenting her),]] Christine meets her boyfriend's parents at their house with him, and she brings a home-made cake that, she having bitten into a piece of it, causes her to cough the fly out of her belly - her boyfriend's parents [[FromBadToWorse connect the dots, spit portions of cake from their mouths, and allow the entire lunch experience to sour]].
* FortuneTeller: Rham Jas.

* NiceGuy: Clay.

* OhCrap: [[spoiler: When Christine realizes that she used the wrong envelope.]]

* PoorCommunicationKills: Evidently, the following is Clay's thought pattern the night before his holiday with Christine: "Why is there a coat button in this envelope? Oh, that's the thing that Christine was stressing about, isn't it - the thing she was sure would send her to [[FireAndBrimstoneHell Hell]]? What a stupid thing to assume: [[JustifiedTrope I haven't seen a thing to suggest that she's in any danger at all]]. Still, she was pretty worried about it. She needs to relax a little: I can return it tomorrow." The first day of their holiday also happens to be the final day in the cycle of the curse. In the end, the trope is [[spoiler: PlayedStraight]].
* RedemptionInTheRain: When Christine finally [[spoiler:emerges from the [[RiseFromYourGrave gypsy woman's grave]] in the rain, it montages into her taking a shower]]. Subverted [[spoiler: in that the rain stops pouring the moment after [[HoistByHisOwnPetard the deed]] [[KarmicDeath is done]]]].
* UsefulNotes/{{Romani}}

* TooDumbToLive: Creator/SamRaimi refers to [[spoiler: Christine]] as this: [[http://screencrave.com/2009-05-27/sam-raimi-interview-for-drag-me-to-hell/ here's the link]], [[WalkingSpoiler and it is a very informative read]].

''Drag Me To Hell'' (2009) is Creator/SamRaimi's long-awaited return to the [[Franchise/EvilDead horror genre]]. The movie stars Alison Lohman as Christine Brown, a loan officer who forecloses on an old Gypsy woman's home for the sake of a promotion. ''Big'' mistake....