Drag Me to Hell

Drag Me to Hell is a 2009 American supernatural horror film directed and co-written by Sam Raimi with Ivan Raimi, starring Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Dileep Rao, David Paymer, and Adriana Barraza. The story focuses on a loan officer who, in an effort to prove to her boss that she can make the "hard decisions" at work, chooses not to extend an elderly woman's mortgage. The old woman places a retaliatory curse on her that, after three days of escalating torment, will plunge her into the depths of Hell to burn for eternity. Drag Me to Hell was developed by Sam and his brother, Ivan, who wrote the script for a film titled The Curse in the 1990s as a dark, cautionary fable. Conceived as a "cruel morality tale", the script was intentionally designed to punish a well-intentioned protagonist for making a single selfish mistake, capturing the visceral, slapstick-horror tone of Raimi’s earlier Evil Dead films. However, they shelved the project to focus on other films, eventually completing the script in 2007. Following the massive commercial success of his Spider-Man film trilogy (2002–2007), Sam Raimi wanted to return to his low-budget, independent horror roots. He partnered with Ghost House Pictures to produce the film independently from major studio constraints. It was shot in Tarzana, California in 2008 with a budget of $30 million. Drag Me to Hell premiered at the SXSW on March 15, 2009, and was theatrically released in the United States on May 29, 2009, by Universal Pictures. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $90.8 million worldwide. It won the Saturn Award for Best Horror Film at the 36th Saturn Awards.