DRAG ME TO HELL
HEADLINE: ** Demonic Evil Victorious **
Title: DRAG ME TO HELL
Quality: * * Acceptability: -4
SUBTITLES: None
WARNING CODES:
Language: LL
Violence: VVV
Sex: S
Nudity: None
RATING: PG-13
RELEASE: May 29, 2009
TIME: 99 minutes
STARRING: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Dileep Rao, David Paymer, and Adriana Barraza
DIRECTOR: Sam Raimi
PRODUCERS: Rob Tapert and Grant Curtis
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane
WRITERS: Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi
BASED ON THE NOVEL/PLAY BY: N/A
DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures/General Electric
CONTENT: (OOO, FRFR, LL, VVV, S, A, MM) Very strong occult worldview where a demon and a demonic curse win victory and heroine consults misguided, ultimately wicked and incompetent psychics and spiritualist mediums instead of relying on the power of Jesus Christ and the insights of the Bible, plus curse in movie implies that gypsies have power to curse people into Hell even though it is our sins that condemn us to Hell, so this is a strong example of a false religious (FRFR) notion that is not theologically or biblically true; five obscenities, two strong profanities and 14 light, mostly exclamatory profanities; very scary, sometimes gruesome and gross violence includes young woman fights an elderly crazy gypsy woman by kicking and punching and shoving a metal object into her throat, shadowy demon flings young woman against stove and other objects two or three times, other characters go flying during crazy séance sequence, implied sacrifice of kitten, corpse vomits liquid into young woman's mouth, blood starts spraying from young woman's nose and gets on her boss, anvil hits physical ghost on head and its eyes and brain pop out, demon drags boy into Hell, boy falls onto marble floor from inner balcony, demon drags woman to Hell as train barrels down on them, woman tries to return cursed object to dead gypsy woman's corpse in her grave during a rainstorm, demon possess a goat and another séance participant, woman has heart attack, etc.; no sex scenes but kissing and unmarried couple shown sleeping together in bed, so there's a very light hint of fornication with no scene actually leading into them sleeping in the bed together; no nudity; alcohol use; no smoking; and, gypsy woman expects another extension after missing two mortgage payments, gypsy woman curses protagonist with a threat of eternal punishment, lying, gypsy woman physically attacks another woman when she doesn't get her way, and snobbery.
GENRE: Horror
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Older teenagers and adults
Please address your comments to:
Jeffrey R. Immelt, Chairman/CEO, General Electric
Jeff Zucker, President/CEO, NBC Universal
Ron Meyer, President/COO, Universal Studios
Marc Shmuger, Chairman
David Linde, Co-Chairman
Universal Pictures
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608-1085
Phone: (818) 777-1000
Web Page: www.universalstudios.com
SUMMARY: DRAG ME TO HELL is an over-the-top, disappointing horror movie about a young woman being harassed by a demonic gypsy curse. It's hard to take it seriously, but the movie has a very strong occult worldview that gives way too much power to demons.
IN BRIEF:
DRAG ME TO HELL is an over-the-top, disappointing horror movie about a young woman being harassed by a demonic gypsy curse. Because she shamed her at the bank, an elderly gypsy woman curses a female loan officer. In three days, a demon will come and drag the woman to Hell against her will. To get rid of the curse, the woman consults psychics and spiritualist mediums. How far will she go to remove the evil curse?
DRAG ME TO HELL is not strong enough to be a feature-length movie. It would work better as a half-hour story with a twist. Even then, the movie is so overwrought that it's really pointless to see it, in theaters or on DVD. Although this movie is hard to take seriously, moviegoers, especially Bible believing Christians, should not dismiss its strong occult worldview. This kind of occultism is abhorrent. It's vital to your soul and your happiness and safety that you avoid this movie. Just as bad is the movie's gruesome, gross violence and the fact that the demon wins in the end. You will waste your time seeing DRAG ME TO HELL.
NOTE from Dr. Ted Baehr, publisher of Movieguide Magazine. For more information from a Christian perspective, order the latest Movieguide Magazine by calling 1-800-899-6684(MOVI) or visit our website at www.movieguide.org. Movieguide is dedicated to redeeming the values of Hollywood by informing parents about today's movies and entertainment and by showing media executives and artists that family-friendly and even Christian-friendly movies do best at the box office year in and year out. Movieguide now offers an online subscription to its magazine version, atwww.movieguide.org. The magazine, which comes out 25 times a year, contains many informative articles and reviews that help parents train their children to be media-wise consumers.
