Discuss: The Curious Case of 'Drag Me to Hell's Button

Or, like me, apparently you're an idiot and you were legitimately surprised and thought it was kinda neat.

Since it was Raimi, I was expecting some poking fun at expectations, so when she dropped the envelope in the car but found it again after 30 seconds of panic, I thought it was just the movie messing with me by saying "you thought she'd lost it and have to come up with a new plan. Nope, she found it. It had to be in the car, right? You saw it drop out. Oh, horror movies are silly. Alright, now we're back on track with the digging-up-the-grave-thing." I fully thought she gave the button to the corpse, though I half-expected the corpse to come after her or something when they were at the train station. Something not to let her off so easy.

The coin was only mentioned a few times and didn't feel like it'd come back later, and I had completely forgotten it was also in an envelope since we only saw it near the beginning of the movie.

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I thought that her loving, perfect, lovable Josh Long would be the victim of the curse.

My question is will there be a return from hell, Lohman gave Ash a run for his money a few times.

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The tension in last act is not whether or not it's the button or the coin in the envelope. This plot device is so old that Raimi would only use it if he placed his own twist on it. I believe that the viewer is in on the envelope switch from the moment she gets out of the car with the wrong one. The real tension is in hoping she finds out soon enough to save herself or her boyfriend from being dragged to hell.
So every scene after the switch is like holding your breath waiting for her to please please please just look in the envelope. I felt like the fool who screams, "don't go in the basement" at horror films. I wanted to jump up and shout, "You got the wrong envelope!" several times. It was agonizing seeing her become so smug in her naive belief that she had beaten the odds and survived the curse.
Once again, Raimi shows that you can take cliches and turn them on their head if you take a moment to think about it. Excellent fim.

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It's incredibly idiotic to think that the Brothers Raimi intended the switcheroo to be a genuine surprise development. I mean, even if the scene where Christine gifts Clay with the rare coin towards the beginning of the film excusably skips the mind of a viewer at the wicked climax to this brilliant thrill ride, the unfortunate mix-up in the car is far too drawn-out to be some clumsy set-up for a predictable twist.

It's obviously intended to, at the very least, clue the audience into the fact that something is definitely amiss, if not allow the audience to fully realize that Christine's grabbed the wrong envelope. This is a darkly playful, Hitchcockian ruse on Raimi's part to tease out even more dread and suspense and build up even more tension going into the breathless ending sequence. I mean, right after they swerve and fishtail, that old dude even screams that she's going to Hell.

Christine may not realize her last-ditch effort was thwarted before she even carried it out, but we do. Or at least, we should seeing as Raimi has intentionally given us more than enough information to figure it out.

Besides that, the movie's called "Drag Me To Hell"! The awesome tagline prominently featured in the promo materials is, "Christine Brown has a good job, a great boyfriend, and a bright future. But in three days, she's going to hell.", for chissakes! What'd you think was going to happen? The end is a foregone conclusion and it's all part of the immense fun of the experience. You really don't even need that spoiler warning at the beginning of this post when the poster for a movie matter-of-factly informs you what's going to happen.

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The button/coin swap was the single biggest disappointment for me in Drag Me To Hell. It completely backfired IMO. Why? Because I *knew* that Raimi wasn't going to spare Christine. If there had been even the tiniest shred of doubt about whether or not she would survive the curse then I would share donovanpday's analysis. But I'd wager that almost everyone in the theater knew exactly what was coming by that point in the film.

I think Sam was a little too smart for his own good on this one. For me it really deflated the last act of an otherwise very enjoyable film.

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The button/coin swap was the single biggest disappointment for me in Drag Me To Hell. It completely backfired IMO. Why? Because I *knew* that Raimi wasn't going to spare Christine. If there had been even the tiniest shred of doubt in my mind about whether or not she would survive the curse then I would share donovanpday's analysis. I think Sam was a little too smart for his own good on this one. For me it really deflated the last act of an otherwise very enjoyable film.

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I thought the same thing as viewdrix. As soon as she found the envelope in the car I figured it was just Raimi messing with us. I even whispered this to my dad, who was sitting next to me. Also, I didn't realize the quarter was in an envelope too.

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While I was watching the film's last act, all I could think about was that coin. It took me out of the film and thinking about the writing and directing. So, for me, even if the coin swap was intended to be obvious, it was still a mistake.
They do mention the coin in two places, once when she gives him the coin and once at dinner with his parents. So, we are supposed to remember the coin. Plus he very obviously puts the coin into an envelope; why did he put the coin in an envelope to begin with?
I can ignore the fact that they don't explain why her dropping her purse could end up with the envelopes being switched but, if we're supposed to know the switch took place, I think you make sure we know except that the big reveal at the end doesn't make sense if we were supposed to know. If we weren't supposed to know then the big reveal made sense but... I knew.
Like I said, a think this was a mistake in a very fun movie.

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Whether it was intentional or not it was still a mistake. It totally kills what should have been the most important scene in the movie; the one in the diner where she's tempted to hand the curse off to Stu. The movie is all about the awful things a supposedly "good" person will do in order to get what they want and one of the best things about Raimi's direction is that you're constantly empathizing with Christine, constantly forced to make the same decisions she does. "Shit... would I throw that I old lady out of her home? Could I murder a cute little kitten?" But once you realize that she has the wrong envelope you're no longer making those decisions with her because you know it's all pointless.

That scene with Stu should have been a really hard on the audience. They should be thinking "Stu is a jerk... but he doesn't really deserve to go to hell... but then again he obviously deserves it more than Christine.... but doesn't that make Christine an awful person for giving him the curse?" Instead you're thinking "Christine is gonna sure be surprised when she finds out that's the wrong envelope."

I actually lean towards the side that Raimi knew what he was doing. He made such a big deal about those envelopes; Rham's licking and sealing of the second one was hilariously over the top. But just because he intended it doesn't mean it was a good idea. It robs the final reel of what made the rest of the film so thematically interesting. Ultimately I wish Raimi had actually tried to make his twist work instead of pulling a "wink wink" cop out. If the guy really is smart enough to know the ending doesn't work then he should be smart enough to fix it.

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The coin/button switcheroo was disapointingly obvious and it lessened my enjoyment of the film. It really was my biggest complaint with the movie and kept me from rating it great instead of just good.

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The real question should be: What kind of spiritual advisor walks around with a box of envelopes in his pocket?

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I thought the coin/button scene was brilliant. We knew that she was going to find the envelope. For those too engrossed to realize it wasn't the button, the better for you. For those who picked up on it, the film still payed off.

For those who didn't think of the coin...you're going along with the movie thinking this protagonist might just get away with it. Then it gives you a nice jolt when you realize that's not the case and all that nasty grave digging and corpse meddling was in vain. And if you didn't think of the coin...can you blamed? No. If you're into the whole film and being scared, picking up on those little things is not that important.

For those of you that thought of the coin...yeah, you know there's going to be a moment where she realizes that all that gravedigging was in vain. Honestly, I thought it meant that the curse was passed on to Justin Long and that he would be dragged to hell and then she'd have to live with the guilt. But instead...she gets dragged to hell. And you know what, I'm fine with that. I loved it. It was a great example of the protagonist failing despite all her attempts and suffering the consequences.

That scenes was a great moment. It works on so many different levels and gives different audience members different expectations. That's a pretty awesome and clever thing for a director to do.

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I thought the ending was brilliant. Wether you saw it coming or not I thought a movie that was really about the economy and the banks involvement in the mortgage crisis could only end that way. She was undone by the very thing she lived by...money.

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