Drag Me To Hell, Sam Raimi’s return to low (ish) budget horror, may be many different things. It could be, as Robert Tapert said, a ‘wild ride’ or, as Raimi said, a ‘spook-a-blast’ or simply the latest in a long line of films that suggest to audiences that horror’s crowning moment came and went in 1987.
What it won’t be is a vehicle driven by Oscar darling (but not winner) Ellen Page, who, according to Bloody Disgusting, walked away from the film because she was unhappy with the latest script. They suspect that Page has found better things to do post-Oscar, like grow up, but what if the source is actually on the money? There’s an audience that doesn’t dare to doubt in this effort, because it represents something we’ve wanted from Raimi since he borrowed eight-legged clout from Sony.
But what if Sam and Ivan’s script does blow? Page has proven to be a good judge of material in the past. Juno backlash notwithstanding, she’s got one of the better CVs for a young actress and her departure actually worries me. There’s no shortage of decent replacements in town at the moment, but this move not only makes for a less interesting project, it casts doubt on a project I’ve wanted to buy into wholesale.
UPDATE: Don’t get too worried about the Ivan and Sam script just yet. Variety has a different take, and more detail. The trade claims scheduling conflicts, based on the fact that Drag Me To Hell has been postponed due to the impending SAG strike.
“We were racing to start production so that we could accommodate
Ellen’s schedule,” Ghost House and Mandate said in a joint statement.
“But like so many other productions trying to start before the
potential SAG strike date, this one needed more time and we had to push
back the start of production.”