This is a good, scary horror movie with a little touch of comedy at just the right places.

Rating: Null/10 (27 October 2009)

I don't usually watch horror movies and, when I do, they seldom are actually surprising or scary to me. But "Drag Me To hELL" is the real deal, it gave me shivers a number of times, and while I thought I had the wrap-up figured out 30 minutes before it ended, it kept surprising me all the way to the end. Neat movie.
However, as cute as she is, and as good as she was in "Matchstick Men", I don't believe Alison Lohman is a very good actress. Or maybe this wasn't a good part for her. She is Christine Brown, working as a Loan Officer in a L.A. area bank, and aspiring to promotion to the vacancy that exists at the branch, Assistant VP. She is good-hearted, but she really wants that promotion and makes a decision that haunts her through the whole movie.
Justin Long is perfect as Clay Dalton, her boyfriend, soon to become fiancée, and working as a Professor of Psychology. He mostly represents the sense of reason in this story, often commenting the way one of us audience members might comment about what is going on. But he loves Christine and supports her in her efforts to escape what appears to be a curse.
Lorna Raver is really good, in very effective makeup, as Mrs. Ganush, the lady who comes to the bank to see if she can get an extension on her loan repayment, and not face eviction. Christine has the power to either grant her an extension or not. But taking a tough stance might look better to her boss, and get her a promotion.
The movie actually opens with a scene, in a house, where a boy is taken by the evil character. In this scene we see the floor open up and the boy is dragged down, in flames, to hELL, then the floor heals. The main reason for this short scene is to establish that everything else we see is not some sort of hoax or scheme directed at Christine, but a genuine threat, that she might get dragged to hELL also.
SPOILERS FOLLOW: (For my recollection only) In a scary encounter in the parking garage with Ganush, Christine's coat button is ripped off. Ganush puts a spell on it and gives it back to Christine, and following that she experiences all kinds of disturbing things. After consultation with spiritualists and trying to figure out how to escape the curse, they realize that Christine must give the button to someone else, to transfer the curse. Ganush had died, Christine went to her gravesite, dug up the casket, ripped it open, in a very good scene (the DVD extras show how they shot it). She stuffs the envelope containing the button into Ganush's mouth, so it was now a gift to her, and she would be dragged to hELL. But the next day at the train station meeting Clay for a short vacation, one where he was going to give her the engagement ring, he gives Christine the button, it had gotten mixed up in the car, she actually put an envelope containing an old coin in Ganush's mouth. Then, right there on the train tracks, as a train approached at speed, the train bed opened up and Christine was dragged down into the flames.