10 Horror Movies That Are Pro-Feminism

8. Drag Me To Hell

Hailed as a return to Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead roots (sans the tree rape scene, thankfully), Drag Me To Hell is a schlocky, camp comedy horror about a young bank loan officer, Christine, who inadvertently invokes a demonic curse when she refuses Hungarian grandma Mrs. Ganush a mortgage extension. It’s been variously interpreted as a cautionary tale against female career ambition or an allegory for Christine’s perceived problems with bulimia, hence the film’s fixation with all things oral. But that’s just one way of looking at it.

One of the major criticisms leveled at the film by feminists is that Christine’s reluctance to show typical ‘female’ qualities (compassion, kindness etc.) at her work and her subsequent curse is Raimi’s denouncement of career-oriented women, but perhaps that’s precisely the point. In a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t sort of situation, Christine demonstrates a more ‘male’, hard-edged working ethic to be on a par with her male co-workers and is consequently punished in her private life – more a parody of sexism in the workplace and wider world than an endorsement of it.

There’s also something to be said about what Christine fears the most – returning to her formally overweight self and, of course, the film’s villain Mrs. Ganush who just so happens to be pretty damn old. While it might seem Raimi is warning against being fat, old and/or career-focused, he is perhaps really pointing out that the idea these are undesirable qualities for women is still quite prevalent today.