Sitting in the car last night, stuck in traffic, a radio announcement came on for the new movie “Drag Me To Hell“. At first we thought it was a parody, or some strange credit commercial; but no – it was dead serious – meant to make us scream in terror. If horror films follow contemporary social fears – from the “Frankenstein Complex” to articles like this and books like this; then what does the premise of this movie say about the current state of our society? (can’t help but chuckle even as I type this at 7:49am!)
The premise – straight from IMDB:
A loan officer ordered to evict an old woman from her home finds herself the recipient of a supernatural curse, which turns her life into a living hell. Desperate, she turns to a seer to try and save her soul, while evil forces work to push her to a breaking point.
… and from Wikipedia:
Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is a loan officer with a good job and a promising future. With a promotion up in the air between her and another employee, her boss, Mr. Jacks (David Paymer), advises her that she needs to demonstrate she can make “the hard calls” and make tough decisions. When Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver), an elderly Slavic woman, asks for a third extension on her mortgage, Christine, against her better instincts, denies her in an attempt to prove herself. In desperation, Ganush prostrates herself before Christine, begging and kissing the hem of her skirt. As a crowd of customers and employees gathers, Christine panics and shoves the woman away, gravely insulting her.
That night, in a parking garage, Ganush, enraged and humiliated, exacts revenge by attacking Christine, pulling her out of her car and tearing off one of the buttons the sleeve of her jacket before using it to place a curse upon her. Shaken by this confrontation, but sure that no further harm will come of it, Christine tries to forget what has happened and move on with her life- that is until she is haunted around the clock by a mysterious and terrifying entity that only she can see.
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