Drag Me to Hell Too

So this week I saw Drag Me to Hell, and I must say, it was a pretty interesting experience. I had never expected my Humanities class to lead me to a dollar theater to watch a horror film, but I am glad it did, otherwise I never would have seen this movie. It was made by the same director as the Evil Dead series (Sam Raimi), which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was very similar, just on a PG-13 scale. The humor was very much the same; a surreal mix of slapstick and gore. The scene where the giant hook falls on the demoness’s head, crushing it and shooting her eyeballs at the protagonist is a perfect example of this. The subject matter has been similar throughout the movies. The earlier Evil Dead movies dealt with zombies that had been reanimated by demonic magic/curses, and while this movie had no true zombies, several people were possessed by a demon, so it remained true to form. There was also a certain camera technique present during all the films. The camera starts away from the character, and then rushes towards them, almost as if it was attacking.  
While it seemed a bit silly at points, there were several things about the screenplay I liked. First of all, I loved the ending. SPOILER ALERT: True to the name of the film, the main character gets dragged down to hell at the end after the audience is tricked into thinking she is safe. I really liked that because it was a gutsy move on the part of the writers. People generally like happy endings that delicately and completely close the story. This ending is sad and spontaneous, with her being dragged to hell and then immediately ending before you realize what is going on. I also liked the fact that the movie acted as a sort of morality tale. The main character tries to be a good person, but in a moment of selfishness and greed denies an old woman an extension on her mortgage, and embarrasses her in public. Because of this one bad choice she is pursued by a demon and eventually spends an eternity burning in hell. I liked this because it tells us that even if we think we are nice and generally well-liked, we must be careful not to make greedy and selfish choices; even once. So while it was a little out there and not as scary as I hoped, overall, Drag Me to Hell was much better than most horror movies that come out as it attempted to convey a message and distinct style rather than just being an excuse for your girlfriend to hold on to you.