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Did Christine Brown Deserve Her Fate in ‘Drag Me to Hell?’

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Drag Me to Hell

Drag Me to Hell is a masterpiece. That is not a popular opinion among some of you, but the fact is that it’s a brilliant horror comedy that culminates in one of the most brutal endings in horror movie history.

***SPOILERS FOR A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD FILM BELOW***

As many of you already know, poor Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) does get dragged to Hell in the final scene of Drag Me to Hell. There are quite a few people who, shockingly, are alright with this and feel that Ms. Brown deserved her fate to burn in Hell for all eternity.

How could anyone think that poor, poor Christine Brown deserved to get dragged to Hell only to be tortured by the Lamia? The goat demon gives you a pretty clear idea of what would happen to her: it would feast upon her soul while she festered in the grave. Does anyone deserve that treatment?

Without calling any of you out, here is a small sampling of reader comments from posts I have made on this site about Drag Me to Hell:

  • “I couldn’t even root for the lead girl. She was so unlikable and then when she killed the kitten it just sealed my disdain for her.”
  • “It’s really the old woman that’s the victim in this story and Alison Lohman, I think her character Christine deserved probably what she got.”
  • “The audience kind of overlooks and makes excuses for the selfish choices her character makes throughout the film and therefore ends up shocked and surprised by what happens to her in the end.”
  • “She was a self-centered person who gave the appearance that she was a nice innocent lady who was willing to make Ganush suffer in Hell after all that she did to the old lady while she was alive. The bank teller dug her own Hell.”
  • “Drag Me to Hell had a happy ending. That Alison’s character was such a douchebag that I was happy she was pulled down to Hell. I hope she was suffering every day down there. So yes, happy ending indeed!”
  • “She basically tried to blame her boss every time the demon encountered her and it was so annoying. She just wasn’t as good a person as she thought she was.”

Look, we all have our own opinions and we are certainly entitled to them, but how could anyone think that Christine deserved to spend her afterlife being tortured in Hell? You may need to watch that final scene again to refresh your memory:

To be clear: no one (save for Hitler and maybe a couple of other historical figures on that level of evil) deserves this fate. Let’s assume for a moment that Christine was a Grade-A megabitch. Even then, she wouldn’t really deserve a fate like this. It would be easier to accept and laugh at, but even Heather Chandler herself didn’t deserve to down a mug full of drain cleaner. And she was the worst.

If one were to (literally) play Devil’s advocate, then one would need to look at the aforementioned charges brought up against Ms. Brown:

  • She shouldn’t have rejected Mrs. Ganush’s request for a third extension on her mortgage.
  • She was selfish for wanting to live and she was self-centered in that she only cared about her own survival.
  • She killed her kitten.

It’s that last one that really gets many of you going, so I’ll save it for last. First: was it wrong of Christine to deny Mrs. Ganush her request for a third extension on her mortgage? Sure. It was morally wrong and a bit mean-spirited. Mrs. Ganush had exhausted her income when “the sickness took [her] eye.” That being said, have none of you ever been stuck between a rock and a hard place in order to advance in work? If you’ve been in the same position for a significant period of time with no advancement in your place of employment, it can be a bit frustrating. Christine was even cornered into this decision by her boss (the always great David Paymer), who basically told her she wouldn’t get the promotion if she didn’t shut Ganush down. It’s a shitty thing to do, but does she deserve to burn in Hell for this decision? Not at all. It’s not like she slapped the hag and kicked her out the door for everyone to laugh at her. She made a bold career move and that’s it.

Second: is Christine selfish for wanting to live and for caring solely about her own survival? Many times in Drag Me to Hell, Christine tries to throw other people to the Lamia. From her insistence at the séance that her boss put her in this position to her legitimately trying to send Mrs. Ganush to Hell (after failing to do the same to her obnoxious co-worker Stu), Christine certainly makes a case against herself. Still, would none of you do the same thing? If it were coming down to the wire and you were faced with being dragged to Hell or sending anyone else there in your place, wouldn’t you pick anyone else? Maybe you are more selfless than I am, but in the heat of the moment you are capable of making any kind of decision. As mentioned before, no one deserves this fate, but Christine (again) is being forced into a decision. Mrs. Ganush didn’t have to curse Christine. She made the choice out of spite, and if anything that makes her worse (and arguably more deserving of this fate) than Christine.

Lastly, does Christine deserve to burn in Hell for all eternity for killing her cat? Look, I get it! Killing a pet is basically the worst thing you could ever do in a movie (or real life). I’ve got a 2-year-old dog that, I kid you not, I would take a bullet for, but are you really telling me that you wouldn’t sacrifice any animal in order to save yourself from eternal damnation? Christine may have acted a little too quickly (she could have gone to her family farm and slaughtered a pig, for instance), but she wasn’t thinking clearly. After all, at this point in the film she had just been air-molested by the Lamia and was feeling pretty desperate. I’m not excusing the cat-killing, I’m just saying that it doesn’t condemn her to Hell.

This may be a controversial statement, but those who believe that Christine deserves her fate only think that they feel that way. Those select few are rationalizing their feelings over losing a character who had not committed any sort of grave sin. What do you do when an innocent character is dealt the cruelest punishment in cinema history? You convince yourself that she somehow deserved it. “She killed a helpless kitten!,” you cry. “She was being mean to that vindictive gypsy who was granted two extensions on her mortgage and probably deserved to be thrown out of her house!,” you say. I call shenanigans! There is no way any of you really, truly believe that Christine had this coming to her.

Let’s open the floor for discussion. Are you one of the select view that thinks Christine Brown was a selfish, horrible character who had it coming? Or are you on the opposing side of the argument and actually empathize with Ms. Brown? Let me know in the comments below or Tweet me if you really want to get into it!

A journalist for Bloody Disgusting since 2015, Trace writes film reviews and editorials, as well as co-hosts Bloody Disgusting's Horror Queers podcast, which looks at horror films through a queer lens. He has since become dedicated to amplifying queer voices in the horror community, while also injecting his own personal flair into film discourse. Trace lives in Austin, TX with his husband and their two dogs. Find him on Twitter @TracedThurman

Editorials

‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel

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leprechaun returns

The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.

The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.

Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.

LEPRECHAUN

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).

It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.

The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.

LEPRECHAUN RETURNS sequel

Pictured: Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, and Sai Bennett as Lila, Katie and Rose in Leprechaun Returns.

The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.

Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.

Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.


Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.

The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.

Leprechaun Returns movie

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

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