Out of Competition: “Drag Me to Hell” is a Midnight Screening

Director Sam Raimi is leaving behind Spiderman and reviving his first love with a horror film entitled Drag Me to Hell, presented Out of Competition. His fans have been waiting over 28 years, since the last Evil Dead and the character Ash, for Raimi to come back to the horror genre. This time it is a young girl, Christine, an ambitious L.A. loan officer with a charming boyfriend. Life is good until the mysterious Mrs. Ganush arrives at the bank to beg for an extension on her home loan. Should Christine follow her instincts and give the old woman a break? Or should she deny the extension to impress her boss and get a leg up on a promotion? Christine chooses the latter, dispossessing Mrs. Ganush of her home. In retaliation, the old woman places the curse of Lamia upon Christine, transforming her life into a living nightmare…

Sam Raimi and brother Ivan penned the first draft of the screenplay more than 10 years ago. Ivan Raimi explains: "We’ve always loved the idea of curses. We loved thinking about what would happen to an ordinary person if they were cursed and put into these extraordinary circumstances. While the Lamia has been imagined as various incarnations in many cultures, the stories share a unifying trait. The one thing the legends have in common is that the Lamia is a demon that, when awoken in anger, drags its victims down to hell screaming."