June 24, 2009

DRAG ME TO HELL


Rasa penasaranku terpenuhi sudah ... setelah beberapa kali aku tidak berhasil mengajak temenku untuk nonton film DRAG ME TO HELL ini ... akhirnya kemarin dia luluh juga ... he he he ... makasih yah ...

In Pasadena, California in 1969, a young Mexican couple rushes to the home of medium Shaun San Dena (Flor de Maria Chahua). Their son had stolen jewelry from a group of gypsies three days prior, and since then, he has been complaining of seeing and hearing things not of this earth. San Dena tries to help the boy in a seance, but she and the boy's parents are attacked by an unseen force, which then throws the boy from the second floor of San Dena's home to the first. The boy survives the fall, but as his parents rush to his aid, San Dena can only watch in horror as the floor opens up under him and he is pulled into Hell by demonic hands.

Forty years later, Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), a loan officer in Los Angeles, hopes to be promoted to assistant manager over her conniving co-worker, Stu Rubin (Reggie Lee). Christine's boss, Mr. Jacks (David Paymer), advises her that she needs to demonstrate that she can make tough decisions when she needs to. That same day, Mrs. Sylvia Ganush (Lorna Raver), an elderly gypsy woman, asks for a third extension on her mortgage because she is struggling with economic problems due to an illness. To prove herself to Mr. Jacks, Christine, against her better judgment, denies Mrs. Ganush the extension. In desperation, Mrs. Ganush prostrates herself before Christine, begging and kissing the hem of her skirt. As a small crowd gathers, Christine panics and screams for security, shoving Ganush away and shaming her in public. As security guards escort Ganush out, Mr. Jacks compliments Christine on how she handled the situation and implies that if she can close another big loan, the assistant manager position will be hers.

That night, Christine is attacked in her car by Ganush. After a violent struggle, Ganush removes a button from Christine's jacket and uses it to place a curse on her. Mrs. Ganush disappears, leaving the cursed button with Christine. Later, Christine's boyfriend, college professor Clay Dalton (Justin Long), takes her to a coffee shop to comfort her. On the way home, they pass a fortune teller's store, and Christine insists they go in. There, they meet the fortune teller Rham Jas (Dileep Rao), who tells Christine that she has a dark spirit upon her.

Alone at home, Christine is attacked by the aforementioned dark spirit, which appears as the silhouette of a goat's head. The spirit breaks some windows, cuts the power, and throws Christine across the room, causing minor injuries. Clay assumes that Mrs. Ganush followed them and attacked Christine again. However, when she insists that no one attacked her, they contact a psychologist. The psychologist says that victims of assault often relive past trauma, which seems to settle Christine. That night, Christine dreams that Ganush attacks her in bed, and at work the next day, she has a violent nosebleed, which becomes projectile and soaks Mr. Jacks. Fleeing work, she tries to track down Ganush at the home of her granddaughter, Ilenka. There, Christine learns that Ganush died the previous night, and Ilenka is in the process of holding a wake for her. Christine makes a scene by accidentally knocking over Ganush's body, and Ilenka tells her that she deserves what is coming for her.

Christine consults Rham Jas again, who tells her that the spirit haunting her is actually a powerful demon called the Lamia, and that she is to be tormented by it for three days before being dragged to Hell to burn for eternity. Horrified by this revelation, Christine sacrifices her pet kitten in hopes that it will satisfy the Lamia. When the Lamia torments her during dinner with Clay's parents, and she is attacked by a ghostly figure of Mrs. Ganush in her workshed, Christine and Clay decide to pay $10,000 to enlist the help of the now elderly Shaun San Dena (Adriana Barraza). San Dena prepares a seance, the goal of which is to trap the Lamia in a live goat and kill it, which will destroy it. This plan backfires, however, and the Lamia assaults and possesses everyone in the room, claiming that it will not rest until it takes Christine's soul to Hell. San Dena manages to banish the Lamia from the seance, but dies in the process.

Rham Jas tells Christine that the Lamia will still return for her in just one more day unless she can find a way to stop it for good. He then tells her the only way to get rid of the curse is to give the cursed item to somebody else as a gift, thereby cursing the recipient. Christine seals the button from her jacket in an envelope, but nearly loses it when the bag containing the envelope falls over, spilling it and the other contents out. After searching for a recipient at a diner, Christine considers giving it to Stu, since his actions cheated them both out of the promotion, but she cannot bring herself to condemn another living person else to Hell. She then decides to give the button to Mrs. Ganush. Rham Jas confirms the plan will work, damning the Gypsy woman's soul to Hell. Christine drives to the graveyard where Ganush is buried and digs up her grave. In a torrential downpour, Christine jams the envelope in the old woman's mouth, formally giving it as a gift, and leaves, believing she has beaten the curse.

The next day, Christine goes to Los Angeles Union Station to meet Clay, who is preparing to propose to her; they have plans to spend a relaxing weekend in Santa Barbara. Christine also learns she got the promotion at the bank after Stu's deceit was unveiled. Clay gives her the envelope with the button in it. She had dropped it in his car the night before, when her bag fell over, and accidentally picked a similar one up, which contained a coin she had given to Clay at the start of the film. Horrified, Christine falls onto the tracks as a train barrels into the station. Just before she is struck, demonic arms reach up from under her and pull her into a fiery hole that appears beneath. Clay can't help her, as the train passes over her and forces him back. Christine's face becomes burned and distorted as she is dragged to Hell. All Clay can do is watch as his girlfriend is pulled to her doom, then he looks at the button in his hand as the film ends.

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