David Edelstein on Drag Me to Hell:
It’s Grand Guignol grand opera.
It’s also timely, its bloodbath born of economic desperation; even the séances cost an arm and a leg (not literally, but almost). Really, if the decrepit Gypsy woman (the aptly named Lorna Raver) carried health insurance, she wouldn’t need to borrow from her mortgage money to pay for her glass eye (and maybe that milky orb would fit more snugly in its socket)—and our good-hearted loan-officer heroine, Christine (Alison Lohman), wouldn’t find herself under pressure to deny the old bat an extension. Alas, Christine’s timing is disastrous. Desperate for a promotion, under the watchful eye of her boss (David Paymer), eager to prove to the wealthy parents of her boyfriend (Justin Long) that she’s not some underling off the farm, she tells the gypsy, “I’m sorry.” Much screaming, clawing, and emission of bodily fluids later, Christine winds up with a hellacious curse on her head—a casualty of capitalism.
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