When it opens this weekend, I hope a lot of XXers will go see Drag Me to Hell, the new Sam Raimi horror movie, so we can discuss it here. In addition to being (I thought) a satisfying two hours' worth of alternating laughs and screams, it's a very rich text about female power. So rich, in fact, that I'm not sure yet exactly how to read it. The heroine, Christine, a young bank loan officer played by Alison Lohman, denies an old Hungarian woman, Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) an extension on her mortgage payment, and as a result, the old woman stands to lose her home. Mrs. Ganush, a practitioner of the dark arts, puts an ancient curse on Christine: she will be haunted by horrific visions for three days, at the end of which time she'll be snatched down to hell by the devil himself.

A battle ensues between the two women that takes place on both the physical and metaphysical planes: They slug it out in a parked car, an open grave, and assorted spooky venues suspended between this world and the next. What sets this movie apart from your average slasher thriller is the main character's fierce rejection of victimhood; she's a pretty girl in danger, yes, but also an ambitious career woman who morphs over the course of the movie into a fierce (and at times unscrupulous) warrior fighting for her own soul. The cronelike Mrs. Ganush is unmistakably the villain, but she's deeply sympathetic in her way. She's not a hockey-masked chainsaw-wielder but an immigrant grandmother who begs on her knees to be allowed to keep her house and who, when wronged, resorts to the only power she can command: Satan. I also loved that the film's men, Christine's puppylike boyfriend (Justin Long) and her palm-reading spiritual adviser (Dileep Rao), were relegated to the loyal-helpmate positions traditionally reserved for girls in B-movies (just think of Bryce Dallas Howard in Terminator: Salvation, standing by her man.)

But an equal and opposite reading of the movie might see it as antifeminist and even misogynist, a punishingly negative allegory about female ambition. Christine denies the old woman a loan because she has her eye on a promotion at the bank. In exchange for choosing to prioritize her job over human relationships (ie., for not being "nice" to the old woman), she is literally damned to hell, while her even more unscrupulous male colleagues get off scot free. In this second reading, the crone character, with her wizened face and icky false teeth, would be an expression of the filmmaker's (or the audience's) fear of the aging female body. The message to viewers would then be: Old women are unacceptable at all times. Beautiful young blondes get a pass, as long as they act nice and don't get too many ideas about getting ahead.

I won't reveal whether or not Christine suffers the fate threatened by the movie's (awesomely pulpy) title. But if you do see it, please drag yourselves back here to talk about it next week.

Tags: Alison Lohman, Drag Me To Hell, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Sam Raimi

When it opens this weekend, I hope a lot of XXers will go see Drag Me to Hell, the new Sam Raimi horror movie, so we can discuss it here. In addition to being (I thought) a satisfying two hours' worth of alternating laughs and screams, it's a very rich text about female power. So rich, in fact, that I'm not sure yet exactly how to read it. The heroine, Christine, a young bank loan officer played by Alison Lohman, denies an old Hungarian woman, Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) an extension on her mortgage payment, and as a result, the old woman stands to lose her home. Mrs. Ganush, a practitioner of the dark arts, puts an ancient curse on Christine: she will be haunted by horrific visions for three days, at the end of which time she'll be snatched down to hell by the devil himself.

A battle ensues between the two women that takes place on both the physical and metaphysical planes: They slug it out in a parked car, an open grave, and assorted spooky venues suspended between this world and the next. What sets this movie apart from your average slasher thriller is the main character's fierce rejection of victimhood; she's a pretty girl in danger, yes, but also an ambitious career woman who morphs over the course of the movie into a fierce (and at times unscrupulous) warrior fighting for her own soul. The cronelike Mrs. Ganush is unmistakably the villain, but she's deeply sympathetic in her way. She's not a hockey-masked chainsaw-wielder but an immigrant grandmother who begs on her knees to be allowed to keep her house and who, when wronged, resorts to the only power she can command: Satan. I also loved that the film's men, Christine's puppylike boyfriend (Justin Long) and her palm-reading spiritual adviser (Dileep Rao), were relegated to the loyal-helpmate positions traditionally reserved for girls in B-movies (just think of Bryce Dallas Howard in Terminator: Salvation, standing by her man.)

But an equal and opposite reading of the movie might see it as antifeminist and even misogynist, a punishingly negative allegory about female ambition. Christine denies the old woman a loan because she has her eye on a promotion at the bank. In exchange for choosing to prioritize her job over human relationships (ie., for not being "nice" to the old woman), she is literally damned to hell, while her even more unscrupulous male colleagues get off scot free. In this second reading, the crone character, with her wizened face and icky false teeth, would be an expression of the filmmaker's (or the audience's) fear of the aging female body. The message to viewers would then be: Old women are unacceptable at all times. Beautiful young blondes get a pass, as long as they act nice and don't get too many ideas about getting ahead.

I won't reveal whether or not Christine suffers the fate threatened by the movie's (awesomely pulpy) title. But if you do see it, please drag yourselves back here to talk about it next week.

Tags: Alison Lohman, Drag Me To Hell, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Sam Raimi

Dana, on your recommendation, I saw the scream-filled, sharply funny Drag Me to Hell this weekend, and I didn't think the protagonist was punished for being a striving woman. I thought she was punished for trying to raise up from her humble farm girl origins. (Spoilers ahead!)

As you said earlier, the heroine is Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), a lithe blonde with an exceptionally innocent face. She is a former fat farm girl with an alcoholic mother and a dead father, who is trying as hard as she can to distance herself from her upbringing by getting promoted at the bank and dating a wealthy, upper-class boyfriend, Clay (Justin Long). She is cursed by Mrs. Ganush, an ancient, decrepit gypsy who becomes infuriated when Christine will not extend the bank loan on her home.

While one could read the movie as punishing Christine "for choosing to prioritize her job over human relationships (i.e., for not being 'nice' to the old woman)," as you astutely noticed, Dana, another reading could be that Christine is damned to hell because she doesn't know her socio-economic place in the world. She barely speaks to her mother; she used to be fat and is clearly upset by her former physical imperfections; she wants to be more educated and is very ambitious. For these transgressions, her soul is eventually eaten by demons. Mrs. Ganush is a poverty stricken crone with a creepy yellow jalopy. When she tries to save her house from foreclosure, and resorts to begging, she is rebuffed by Christine, and dies shortly after cursing the heroine to hell.

The one wealthy character, Christine's boyfriend Clay, is unscathed by the curse (well, except for his girlfriend getting damned to hell and all). In fact, it's his money that even gives Christine a chance to beat the devil—he gives her $10,000 to pay a medium who has the potential to banish the demon forever. At the end of the movie, he and Christine are en route to his family's cabin in Santa Barbara, when she realizes she made a fatal mistake and demons suck her down to Hades. The last image of the film is Clay standing on the platform of the train station, with tears in his eyes. But, the Santa Barbara cabin is still intact, as is his soul.

Tags: Alison Lohman, class, Drag Me To Hell, horror movies, Lorna Raver, poverty, Sam Raimi

Dana, on your recommendation, I saw the scream-filled, sharply funny Drag Me to Hell this weekend, and I didn't think the protagonist was punished for being a striving woman. I thought she was punished for trying to raise up from her humble farm girl origins. (Spoilers ahead!)

As you said earlier, the heroine is Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), a lithe blonde with an exceptionally innocent face. She is a former fat farm girl with an alcoholic mother and a dead father, who is trying as hard as she can to distance herself from her upbringing by getting promoted at the bank and dating a wealthy, upper-class boyfriend, Clay (Justin Long). She is cursed by Mrs. Ganush, an ancient, decrepit gypsy who becomes infuriated when Christine will not extend the bank loan on her home.

While one could read the movie as punishing Christine "for choosing to prioritize her job over human relationships (i.e., for not being 'nice' to the old woman)," as you astutely noticed, Dana, another reading could be that Christine is damned to hell because she doesn't know her socio-economic place in the world. She barely speaks to her mother; she used to be fat and is clearly upset by her former physical imperfections; she wants to be more educated and is very ambitious. For these transgressions, her soul is eventually eaten by demons. Mrs. Ganush is a poverty stricken crone with a creepy yellow jalopy. When she tries to save her house from foreclosure, and resorts to begging, she is rebuffed by Christine, and dies shortly after cursing the heroine to hell.

The one wealthy character, Christine's boyfriend Clay, is unscathed by the curse (well, except for his girlfriend getting damned to hell and all). In fact, it's his money that even gives Christine a chance to beat the devil—he gives her $10,000 to pay a medium who has the potential to banish the demon forever. At the end of the movie, he and Christine are en route to his family's cabin in Santa Barbara, when she realizes she made a fatal mistake and demons suck her down to Hades. The last image of the film is Clay standing on the platform of the train station, with tears in his eyes. But, the Santa Barbara cabin is still intact, as is his soul.

Tags: Alison Lohman, class, Drag Me To Hell, horror movies, Lorna Raver, poverty, Sam Raimi