Drag Me to Hell is a 2009 American horror film, directed by Sam Raimi, with a screenplay by Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi. The plot revolves around loan officer Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), who tries to impress her boss by refusing to extend a loan to a gypsy woman by the name of Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver). In retaliation, Ganush places a curse on Christine which, after three days of escalating torment, will plunge her into the depths of Hell to burn for eternity.Raimi and his brother Ivan wrote Drag Me to Hell before Sam had worked on the Spider-Man films. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and was released to wide critical acclaim, it was also a box office success, making $90.8 million worldwide, against a $30 million budget.Drag Me to Hell won the award for Best Horror Film at the 2010 Saturn Awards.
In 1969 Pasadena, California, a young couple seek aid of the medium Shaun San Dena (Flor de Maria Chahua) as their son claims to see and hear monsters. San Dena aids the family with a seance, but they are attacked by an unseen force which pulls the boy into a fiery pit.
In 2009 Los Angeles, California, bank loan officer Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) hopes to be promoted to assistant manager over her co-worker Stu Rubin (Reggie Lee). Her boss, Jim Jacks (David Paymer), advises her to demonstrate that she can make tough decisions to get a promotion. Christine is visited by an elderly woman, Sylvia Ganush (Lorna Raver), who asks for an extension on her mortgage payment. Christine decides to deny Ganush an extension to prove herself to Mr. Jacks. Jacks compliments Christine on how she handled the situation.
In the bank parking lot, Christine is attacked in her car by Ganush. After a violent struggle, Ganush removes a button from Christine's coat and uses it to place a curse on Christine. Later, with her boyfriend Clay Dalton (Justin Long), they meet the fortune teller Rham Jas (Dileep Rao), who tells Christine that she is being haunted by a spirit. At her home, Christine is attacked by the spirit and has nightmares about Ganush. At work the next day, Christine has a projectile nosebleed that soaks a horrified Mr. Jacks in blood. Christine then tries to meet Ganush at her granddaughter's home and finds that Ganush died the previous night and a memorial service is being held. Christine returns to Rham Jas, who explains that she is being haunted by a powerful demon called the Lamia that will torment her for three days before taking her to Hell. Rham Jas suggests a sacrifice to appease the demon. The next day, the Lamia returns and thrashes Christine around her bedroom. Desperate to stop the attacks, Christine sacrifices her pet kitten. At a dinner party with Clay and his parents, Christine is still tormented by the Lamia, which frightens the Daltons.
Christine returns to Rham Jas, for further help who says that Shaun San Dena will risk her life to stop the demon for a fee of $10,000. Further supernatural attacks on Christine lead Clay to pay the fee. San Dena prepares a séance to trap the Lamia's spirit in a goat and kill it, vanquishing the spirit. San Dena allows the Lamia to inhabit her body. Rham Jas tries to persuade it not to steal Christine's soul, but it refuses and vows to never stop until Christine dies. Christine then places San Dena's hand on the goat, causing the spirit to enter its body. San Dena's assistant, Milos, attempts to kill the goat, but is instead bitten by the goat and in turn becomes possessed, attacking the members of the seance. San Dena banishes the Lamia from the séance, but dies in the process. Rham Jas seals the button from Christine's coat in an envelope and then tells her that the only way to get rid of the curse is to give the accursed item to someone as a gift, thereby passing the curse on to that person.
Christine and Clay drive home, but due to a sudden stop by Clay, the envelopes are dropped. After retrieving the envelope, Christine attempts to find a recipient of the curse. She decides to give the envelope to Stu, but changes her mind. With guidance from Rham Jas, Christine learns she can give it to Ganush. Christine drives to the cemetery where Ganush is buried and digs up her grave. In a torrential downpour, Christine jams the envelope in Ganush's mouth. The next day, Christine goes to Los Angeles Union Station to meet Clay, where they plan to spend a weekend in Santa Barbara. Clay, planning to propose reveals to Christine that he found the envelope containing the button from her coat in his car. Christine then realizes she mixed up her envelope with another that she gave to Clay. Horrified, Christine walks backward and falls onto the tracks as a train barrels towards her. Before the train hits her, a fiery hole in the ground opens from under the tracks. Clay watches in horror as hands reach out and pull Christine down into hell to burn for eternity.
The Illusionist
The Illusionist is a 2006 period drama written and directed by Neil Burger and starring Edward Norton, Jessica Biel, and Paul Giamatti. Based loosely on Steven Millhauser's story "Eisenheim the Illusionist", The Illusionist tells the story of Eisenheim (Norton), a magician in turn-of-the-20th-century Vienna.The film premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and opened the 2006 Seattle International Film Festival; it was distributed in limited release to theaters on August 18, 2006, and expanded nationwide on September 1.The film begins in medias res as Chief Inspector Walter Uhl (Giamatti) moves to arrest Eisenheim during what appears to be necromancy passed off as a magic show. He then begins to recount the story of Eisenheim for Crown Prince Leopold.
Eisenheim was born the son of a cabinetmaker in Vienna, Austria-Hungary and is seen training for this same trade. One day when he was a teenager, Eisenheim (played as a young man by Aaron Johnson) meets a traveling magician along a road. The magician performs several tricks for him and then, according to various accounts, both the magician and the tree he was sitting under vanish. Eisenheim becomes obsessed with magic tricks after this.He also falls in love with Sophie, the Duchess von Teschen (Biel, played as a teenager by Eleanor Tomlinson), a noblewoman well above his social class; her parents have hired Eisenheim's father as a cabinetmaker. Young Eisenheim makes young Sophie a unique marquetry puzzle locket, which if twisted correctly reveals a small, hidden photograph of Eisenheim. Although the two are forbidden to see each other, they meet in a secret hideout chamber in the woods, where Eisenheim tells of his plans to go to China to learn more magic and Sophie promises to go with him. On the day that they are going to leave, however, the police come looking for Sophie. The two hide in the secret room and Sophie begs Eisenheim to make them both disappear. He is unable to fulfil this request and the two are separated. This event has major significance on their future lives and Eisenheim learns a great lesson from it.Eisenheim travels the world, perfecting his craft and returns to Vienna years later as a master illusionist. He meets Sophie at one of his performances, when she is volunteered by Crown Prince Leopold as a reluctant participant in an illusion, where her reflection in a mirror is "murdered". He soon learns that Sophie is expected to marry the Crown Prince, who purportedly has a history of abuse towards women. Eisenheim and Sophie, having recognized each other, meet privately, whereupon it is revealed to the film audience that Sophie still has the locket he made for her years ago. After humiliating the Crown Prince during a private show, Eisenheim finds his hit performance shut out of Vienna. When Sophie comes to offer him help, the two consummate their relationship and realize that they are still in love. They plan to flee the Empire together; but first, Sophie points out, something must be done to stop Leopold, who, she reveals, is planning a coup d'etat to usurp the Crown of Austria from his aging father, the Emperor Franz Joseph I, while using his engagement to her to win the Hungarian half of the Empire as well. She also knows that the Crown Prince will view her as disposable if she leaves him for another man, and that he will have both her and Eisenheim followed and killed.Leopold finds out from Uhl, who was following the couple, that Sophie has met with Eisenheim. Whilst drunk, Leopold confronts Sophie and accuses her of being unfaithful. She tells him that she will not marry him or have anything to do with his plan. When she attempts to leave, it appears that he murders her in the stables, with a sword cut across her neck. Unfortunately, Leopold's royal status makes any accusations against him unthinkable, despite an existing belief among the people that Leopold has murdered a woman in the past. As Eisenheim plunges into despair and the citizens of Vienna begin to suspect Leopold of Sophie's murder, Uhl observes Eisenheim's actions more closely on behalf of Leopold.Wracked with grief, Eisenheim prepares a new kind of magic show, using mysterious equipment and Chinese stagehands. Eisenheim purchases a run-down theater and opens a new performance. During his show, Eisenheim apparently summons spirits, leading many to believe that he possesses supernatural powers.Leopold decides to attend one of Eisenheim's shows in disguise. During this show, Eisenheim summons the spirit of Sophie, who says someone in the theater murdered her, panicking Leopold. Uhl pleads with Eisenheim to stop such performances, but Eisenheim refuses. Finally, Leopold orders Eisenheim's arrest. We then return to the opening scene of the movie, but now we see that when Uhl tries to arrest him during the performance, Eisenheim's body fades and disappears like his summoned spirits.
Inspector Uhl searches for Eisenheim at his house. There he finds a folio labeled "Orange Tree," the name of one of Eisenheim's illusions which had intrigued Uhl. Thinking he will find the solution to one of the magician's most famous tricks, he opens it to find empty pages except for a scrap of parchment showing how to open the locket Eisenheim had given Sophie when they were young.
Uhl reveals to Leopold that he has found evidence which links the Crown Prince to Sophie's murder: a jewel from the prince's sword and Sophie's locket that Eisenheim gave her when they were children. After ordering, then begging Uhl to keep silent, Leopold discovers that Uhl has already informed the Emperor and the General Staff of Leopold's conspiracy to usurp the Austro-Hungarian throne. As the Army arrives at his Palace to arrest him, Leopold shoots himself in despair after angrily justifying his plans to overthrow his father.In the next scene, Uhl is shown leaving the Imperial Palace. After he takes a few steps, a boy runs up to hand him a folio labeled "Orange Tree". This time, the "Orange Tree" folio is filled with plans detailing a geared mechanism to make the tree "grow". Uhl demands to know where the child obtained the folio; the child reveals that Eisenheim had given it to him. Uhl then reaches down into his pocket, to discover the Duchess' locket, missing. He realises with a jolt that he has been pick-pocketed by a disguised Eisenheim, and gives chase following him to the train station. After the chase, a montage shows Uhl putting the pieces together and discovering how Eisenheim faked Sophie's death and framed Leopold for the murder. Eisenheim is then seen walking up to a house in the country where Sophie is waiting for him.
