I rented this BD from Netflix, and I had to download a firmware update to play it on my Panasonic BD35.

For those planning to blind buy this one, I advise caution. I rented it after much anticipation and thought it was quite lame. Neither scary nor funny (aside from one scene). I'm really glad I didn't make the mistake of blind buying it. I actually found it rather boring.

. . . and then there are those of us who know the truth: that "Drag Me to Hell" is the single best movie of 2009.

Lmao. Ok.

Some people just don't get Raimi's tone - and that's fine with me. Those of us who get it, really get it. Watched this again last night and still LOVE IT.

This. I love Sam Raimi, but I also don't think the first Evil Dead is really that great at all (important and groundbreaking, just not great imo). However, Drag Me to Hell is a perfect exercise by a director who can play to an audience. The ability to make them jump and then immediately laugh is a wonderful talent. My wife truly LOVES this movie, and while I enjoy it immensely and find it to be one of the year's best movies, I find it a shame that so many people don't get what Raimi is doing. If you do get it, its just an awesome experience watching this movie.

Except in all his other films, there was a 'tone', and this film actually lacks a definable tone. The tone shifts quite a bit.

Some people "get it" (they realize the over-the-top comedic elements are intentional), but don't appreciate it. I personally enjoy horror films with overt comedy, but I PREFER "pure" horror films because they have the potential to be much more creepy/disturbing. I think crafting a good "pure" horror film is much more difficult, too.

Blind bought this and no regrets whatsoever. Loved it. This movie will be a cult classic in years to come.

I don't think the tone was all that different from Army of Darkness. It felt consistent to me.

Well, Army of Darkness always had a 'light' and somewhat comical sense to it, as did Evil Dead 2. I felt that Drag Me to Hell was consistently switching back and forth between the comical camp and genuinely creepy/frightening moments. It felt as if it wasn't sure which film it wanted to be.

...but that's exactly what it's trying to do. There's really not an "I felt" about that...that's the entire mission statement. That's almost like saying "I feel that McDonald's sells cheeseburgers and French fries" or "I feel that Publix has a produce section". Well...yeah. Statement of fact. It's obviously a matter of opinion whether or not that approach works here (I think of it more as a big, loud, deliriously fun spookhouse than a horror movie), but I'm not sure how it could be interpreted as anything but a campy, goopy horror-comedy.

It's not all that out of step with Evil Dead 2, only with more of an emphasis on characterization and nudging the weight slightly further away from a hypercampy splatter-comedy in the process. I actually think the two have a lot in common since they're each basically charting a single person tormented by a mostly-unseen evil and unraveling for the entire flick. Same frantic camerawork (hell, same DP, even), similar emphasis on a spooky sound design, the demon-infused animal heads, the barrel drums of bodily fluids...it's not hard to argue that Drag Me to Hell is more of a sequel to Evil Dead 2 than Army of Darkness is, really.

I know that's what it's trying to do, but Raimi's earlier works in horror didn't feel as jarring to me as this film did. I'm a HUGE fan of Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Army of Darkness, but they all had a general tone that carried throughout the entire films. There was a very nice blend of horror and comedy in the latter two films of that trilogy, but that 'blend', in my opinion of course, was nowhere to be found in Drag Me to Hell. It really felt like one minute this movie tried to be a pretty genuine horror film, it was effectively creepy at times, but then there were scenes two minutes later that made you want to laugh your ass off, and then you'd be scared again. These styles didn't mesh very well in this film, at least not as well as they did in Evil Dead 2 or Army of Darkness. It was flip-flopping back and forth, back and forth. It was as if I was changing the channels to watch two separate films that starred the same cast. Was Raimi setting out to accomplish the 'scare tactic into comedy routine in the next scene' something he was trying to achieve an uncomfortable feeling while watching the film or something? I don't know. HOWEVER...

I'm not saying I disliked Drag Me to Hell. I just think that all the hype surrounding it is way way WAY overblown. People have been calling this 'movie of the year', and I really just don't get it. I generally have my thumb on things a lot when it comes to film. I'm able to watch something and find appreciable values that might make me LOVE a movie where pretty much everyone else might hate it, simply because I can take a good look at what a directors intent is and find something good out of it. With this movie, I just can't place my finger on it though. I guess this is one of the very few films I just 'didn't get'. I still stand by my statement though that Raimi's earlier work was able to blend these two styles perfectly, while this film jars you like you're on an old rickety roller coaster that feels like it might fly off the rails at any given moment.

Some people just really really like old rickety roller coasters.

Another blind buyer here who was underwhelmed. I own all of Raimi's other stuff. This one just didn't do a whole lot for me. Oh well - shouldn't be too hard to sell. I must learn to rent these hyped movies! (Trick 'r' Treat being another example).