tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34993991.post1033326368302467401..comments2023-10-05T07:46:44.392-04:00Comments on And Now the Screaming Starts: Movies: Aw, Hell – 3 random observations on "Drag Me to Hell."CRwMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896615209770501945noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34993991.post-37500836617015956782009-06-16T10:41:17.665-04:002009-06-16T10:41:17.665-04:00Anon,
That's a great point.
I think we agree...Anon,<br /><br />That's a great point.<br /><br />I think we agree on allot of things here. Mostly, neither you nor I think (and Raimi would seem to confirm this) that the film was about the current financial crisis. My statement was simply meant to point out that I believe critics are viewing it through the lens of the current banking disaster and that neither the filmmaker nor the film really support the comparison.<br /><br />That said, I don't know that the film makes a convincing case that Ms. Brown does not, in fact, follow the pangs of inner conscience.<br /><br />In the diner scene, for example, Brown is not only unable to unload the cursed button onto an innocent, but she finds herself incapable of gifting the curse even to a guilty douchebag. This would definitely be in her self-interest (not only professionally, but in terms of survival), but she isn't able to bring herself to do something she truly believes is wrong.<br /><br />This suggests to me that Brown doesn't believe that denying the loan is wrong. She's uncomfortable about it and wishes that she wasn't in the position she's in, but sometimes doing the responsible thing doesn't make one feel good.<br /><br />One could argue that the curse has taught Brown something about following one's ethical compass, but then one imagines that she'd then be more resigned to accepting her fate as just punishment for an evil deed - something she does not do. Raimi would have actually had to develop Brown's character arc more to sell me on that concept.<br /><br />There is, to counter my argument, the "I knew it was wrong" line she gives right before she's dragged of to you know where. Honestly, that seemed like a tacked on thing to justify the (literally) hellish scene that follows immediately thereafter to the viewers, giving us a sense that, in some way, Christine deserved it. To me, anyway, it seemed as artificial as the anvil Ms. Brown has inexplicably hanging in her garage.<br /><br />In defense of the film, one could say that this ambiguity was meant to communicate the complexity of the moral situation Brown is in. Honestly, I think Raimi didn't much care. What happens to Christine happens because the story needs a reason to curse her that won't make us instantly and fully think she completely deserves it.<br /><br />The isn't a major flaw in the film or anything. <i>Drag Me to Hell</i> is hardly intended as Raimi's philosophical meditation on the conflict between legalistic notions of morality and more abstract notions of a innate moral sense. I brought it up simply because I think people who are using it as a stick to beat the banks with are not really paying attention to the film.CRwMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07896615209770501945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34993991.post-61611403337268478492009-06-13T07:37:56.951-04:002009-06-13T07:37:56.951-04:00I disagree about Christine / point 2 - her crime i...I disagree about Christine / point 2 - her crime isn't that she doesn't extend the loan (neither a crime nor a moral infraction in itself as you point out), it is that she acts out of self-interest and in oder to advance her career, despite being fully aware that her acts are not in accordance with her own moral beliefs. Whether the bank was right or Mrs. Ganesh had a point doesn't really matter at all, I think the implication is that she would have made the same decision anyways, since her own interests take precedence over the question what's wrong and what's right and that is where her "crime" lies.<br /><br />I don't think any comment on the financial crisis was intended, but even if we read the set-up that way, I think Raimi makes a fairly good point, precisely by avoiding getting dragged into any ethical questions concerning the actual loan business and concentrating on individual/personal ethics instead.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34993991.post-51367740055042088192009-06-12T14:14:55.827-04:002009-06-12T14:14:55.827-04:00Just saw this last night!
With all the rave revie...Just saw this last night!<br /><br />With all the rave reviews I went in with impossibly high expectations. It wasn't a bad film but at the end of it I kind of felt like it would be the sort of thing I'd like to see as an episode of Masters of Horror (if MoH had been a better series.)<br /><br />The main problem for me was that it wasn't all that scary - it seemed to rely mostly on old-timey horror effects like loud noises, blowing wind, rattling chandeliers and hallucinations.<br /><br />My other problem was that I didn't think the leads were all that great, especially the boyfriend. There seemed to be zero chemistry between the two.<br /><br />Which might all kinda work if you look at Christine as an "evil bitch" (the girl behind us in the theatre said at the end: "Hooray, the evil bitch is dead!")<br /><br />So I started thinking about the film as something that was flipping our expectations: the protagonist wasn't actually supposed to be sympathetic (evicts an old woman to advance her career, kills her own cat, considers sending an old guy on an oxygen tank to hell, maintains a bland relationship to marry into money.)<br /><br />Was her punishment proportionate to her "crimes"? Well, no, but in horror films it never is :)<br /><br />But now I see Raimi's own quote contradicts that theory. So... huh.spacejackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14902182763527176185noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34993991.post-47903421079131760632009-06-12T09:49:35.417-04:002009-06-12T09:49:35.417-04:00I blame the Exorcist for starting that trend ;)
(...I blame the Exorcist for starting that trend ;)<br /><br />(Glad you got out to see the flick, seemed economy had you down when I asked if you'd review it last..)Sasquatchannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34993991.post-38512012100667559072009-06-11T16:11:33.845-04:002009-06-11T16:11:33.845-04:00Anony,
He got beat to the punch by the far inferi...Anony,<br /><br />He got beat to the punch by the far inferior "Haunting in Connecticut" which had its child hero puke up semi-sentient ectoplasm pseudo-pods. There's the black death vomit of "Sixth Sense." Heck, even mainstream comedies are full of folks giving us cinematic representations of the technicolor yawn: from <i>Team America</i> to <i>Observe and Report</i>. The ratings board clearly thinks that vomit is a-okay in their books, so if you're a horror director, just CGI your "blood" a greenish yellow, call it vomit, and you're getting PG-13. Puke is hot!CRwMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07896615209770501945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34993991.post-39710725657093166182009-06-11T15:47:22.837-04:002009-06-11T15:47:22.837-04:00"Rather, I think it is a sign of how happy Ra..."Rather, I think it is a sign of how happy Raimi is to repackage his old material as mainstream stuff. Raimi's still big on geysers, but now they're CGI'ed puke-goo or a vomited up cat."<br /><br />Interesting what counts as mainstream stuff nowadays.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com