Drag Me to Hell/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Acceptable Ethnic Targets - The Roma again.
    • On the other hand, her grievance is legitimate, although she obviously takes it too far.
      • Her grievance is not legitimate. However, this trope still doesn't really apply to the Roma, because the implication was that Ganush was right to curse Christine and that she deserved it. The actual acceptable ethnic target is white people (especially pretty white blonde girls).
  • Acceptable Professional Targets - Bankers. The movie implies, and many viewers also took the position, that Christine deserved her fate for not giving the gypsy woman another extension, never mind that she gave no reason for Chris to think she'd be able to make the next payment this time.
  • Accidental Aesop/Space Whale Aesop: Always double-check something, or else you will be dragged down to hell for it.
    • Be nice to everyone you meet, or you'll end up cursed to be dragged to Hell by a demon.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation - A rapidly circulating theory states that all of the events of the movie after her encounter with Mrs. Ganush were hallucinations caused by her insecurities and guilt.
    • This theory is brilliant, especially as it explains why after Christine sprays blood everywhere like a firehose, her boss only acts concerned that there is blood on his suit.
      • This theory has also great chances to have been put into the movie by Sam and Ted Raimi, if the talk about psychoanalysis in the psychic's parlor at the beginning of the movie is of any indication.
    • There's also the theory that the movie is actually about eating disorders. And it makes sense.
      • Her eating disorder killed the seance lady?
    • Another interpretation in this vein is that, instead of being cursed by Mrs. Ganush (who's just a red herring), Christy was cursed by the Lamia (who assumes Mrs. Ganush's appearance throughout the movie, starting with the parking lot scene). In this case, the Lamia is a traveling demon that preys upon vulnerable individuals (like Christy with her eating disorder, social climbing, and guilt over denying Mrs. Ganush), a common premise in folklore. The Lamia torments its victims with vivid hallucinations, the intent being to trick them into damning themselves by compromising their moral and spiritual values, after which the Lamia is free to steal their soul (note how the psychic warns Christy against graverobbing and divination). This is as written in the Bible, where demons may only tempt mortals and cannot violate their free will (the acts committed by a person during possession are not done of their own free will and therefore do not damn their soul). Had Christy not done the things she did to get rid of the curse, the most important being that she believed she had the right to damn someone else's soul to Hell, then she wouldn't have "deserved" to be dragged to Hell in the first place.
      • Two problems with this: Sylvia's granddaughter implies that she already knows about the curse and what it's going to do to her, and there's no suggestion that the young Mexican boy did anything after apparently being cursed that would have deserved being dragged to Hell.
  • Complete Monster - Sylvia Ganush failed to repay her loan extensions twice, and when she's denied it a third time, she makes a fool of herself in front of an entire bank while begging for a third extension, then blames Christy for shaming her and then curses her to HELL for it! Her granddaughter arguably falls into this for thinking Christy deserves her fate too.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse - The goat.
  • Hell Is That Noise - Pretty much throughout the entire film, but with different noises. The people who did the sound seriously need an Oscar.
  • High Octane Nightmare Fuel - And how!
  • Holy Shit Quotient - An off the charts level of it.
  • Moral Event Horizon - Stu Rubin. He and Christine are vying for the same promotion throughout the movie. At first he's just an inconsiderate jerk and a kiss-ass. Then Christine is given an extremely important account to work on (if she succeeds, it'll put her over the top for the promotion). What does Rubin do when Christine has her explosive nosebleed? He steals the account's files and tries to freelance it at another bank. Christine notices it pretty quick, and late in the movie, tries to unload the button on him through blackmail (something that the audience has, understandably, no qualms with). He starts blubbering about it, and Christine has a crisis of human emotion and tells him to leave and that she won't tell--Rubin gives her eternal gratitude. So, Christine ends up going to hell. Would it sound worse if I told you that the morning after meeting with Christine, he tried to pin the freelance thing on her? Oh, Christine. If only you'd given him that button, because Christ, he really proved he deserves it. Well, if you'd had the button, anyway...
    • Granted, he'll probably go to hell the normal way anyway.
    • A large amount of people seem to also lose all sympathy for Christine once she sacrifices her kitten.
      • For some Christine killing her kitten just made them hate Sylvia more, considering she was the one who put Christine in that position.
    • The first Horizon crosser is the offscreen Romani (possibly Sylvia) who curses a ten year old Mexican boy to Hell for stealing a necklace. A necklace his parents immediately tried to return.
  • Nausea Fuel: The movie has an odd interest in Nausea Fuel material of its own winding up in Christine's mouth.
  • Retroactive Recognition - Latecomers to the movie may recognize Rham Jas from one of his subsequent blockbusters, either as Max the scientist or especially Yusuf the chemist.
  • Special Effect Failure - The CGI isn't too convincing when Christine drops an anvil on Ganush.
  • Squick - Especially for a PG-13, this film is frakkin' disgusting. But in the most awesome possible way.
  • What an Idiot! - As mentioned before, she should had realized the coin when she was tapping the envelope at the counter.
    • So why didn't Rham Jas just give Christine all of the possible options immediately? It wasn't a case of him simply doing research and finding new information.
  • The Woobie - Christine, Clay, the Mexican boy and his parents, and the two animals involved in the plot.
    • Well, considering that both of these animals were killed by Christine, this would arguably make her Jerkass Woobie.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Didactic?: Some fans actually think the whole thing is an allegory for eating disorders like bulimia, and how society has some "ideal image" of how a woman should look that causes such an illness.