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Reasons why Chrisitne from Drag me to hell inspires me

I wanted to share very deep things about why I felt inspired by Christine from Drag Me to Hell and of course, Alison Lohman herself.

By Meghan LeVaughn Published 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago 17 min read
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This is when I was doing that redraw screenshot challenge, l thought I would like to do this scene from the film Drag me to hell

Greetings, everyone. I wanted to share the deepest things about why I felt inspired by Christine from Drag Me to Hell and of course, Alison Lohman herself. As you may know for some viewers, this has the Content Warning which contains adult language, eating disorders, body shame, body dysmorphia, alcoholic, bullying, anxiety, depression, perfectionism, sexism, misogyny, social stigma, grief, tragedy, and trauma. And yes, I agree that there are so many theories that Christine, in reality, has an eating disorder - between self-starvation, fasting, binging, and purging. I’m not gonna do the entire film summary, etc. I'm gonna write some parts about when I felt related to both Christine and Alison. It may be a bit of a spoiler if anyone hasn't seen the film yet.

After the opening credits, it began when Christine Brown, a young ambitious loan officer, was driving through the traffic headed her way to work. During her driving, she was trying to get rid of her southern accent. She also wanted to sound and looked perfect to shape up in her new potential and professional life, etc. I learned that Christine was from Missouri. For starters, I thought she was originally from either Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, or Kentucky. For me, I had been through because of my language disorder from mixed receptive and expressive flaws that dragged me down from that ableist society since I was in school. I have to use a Grammarly app(grammar checker) if I want to sound or write perfectly.

By the time she's heading to her work, she hungrily and lustily stares at the delightful baking goods from the window. You can tell of her thoughts and reaction like, ‘Oh my gosh! Wow! I wanted it! I wanted so badly. They look delicious. But..no..... I can't.” I wonder if she already ate the grapefruit for breakfast(according to the rough script as ‘Stephanie’). This is the first sign that she has been through with an eating disorder. She might be ended up for doing major fasting. For me, I have to keep a low-carb diet and keto-friendly as I can. I still have to go easy with all the carbs while I'm still aware of the calories, sugar, and sodium. About the fast foods, carnival foods, and anything that has too much deep-fried/salty/greasy, I have to stay away from them as much I could.

You can see her reaction when she directly started at the sweets

At work, Christine asked her boss, Mr. Jacks, about who's on the list of the biggest promotions for the assistant manager position. The only one who's getting it is just her and her rival co-worker named Stu, the new guy. Mr. Jacks wanted someone more aggressive, cold, or mean-spirited, like Stu, to be an assistant manager. Unfortunately, it turns out that Mr. Jacks believed that Christine was “too naive/too nice” to get the promotion. It always sounded very harsh. I also felt pressured for years if I was adequate, mature, and smart enough with everything because of my personality and gender as well.

I can understand how Christine wanted to fit in better and be perfect in everything, especially to be a great girlfriend to Clay(Justin Long), a young professor from the psychology university. While being a perfect girlfriend, she gave him an old coin for his coin collection and fixed his printer without getting a new printer, etc. During the lunch scene, if I'm not mistaken, I see there's a salad besides Christine on the desk while Clay is having a sandwich on his side of the desk. I get confused about “she only uses water and coffee”? For my opinion, what about that salad?

Was that really her salad or that was someone else?

By the time Christine was walked out from Clay’s office, you can hear the voice of Clay’s mother was on the phone. His mother said that Clay should date the other woman who's wealthier, very educated, and has higher class instead of a woman who’s from the farm area which is one of the most heartbreaking and hurtful moments of this film. She also said that she wants Clay to break up with Christine for good because she's from the farm and doesn't have a higher class or great social status for Clay. “It's time to find a REAL partner!”. I would be upset and hurt if my lover’s family said that to me because I graduated from community colleges, had no career experiences, etc. I do have similar issues to her. For example, I wish I was born in California, Tonronto, Canada; Vancouver, British Columbia; Seattle, WA, or Chicago, IL; I wish I graduated from the best University; I wish I had a great career background if I don't have any flaws and disabilities, etc. I know I haven't accepted myself for decades.

After that, Christine just got back to the office. She delivered Mr. Jack’s and Stu’s lunch. While Christine was making her coffee, Stu complained or accused Christine for ordering wrong. But, she didn’t and she was right! He didn't say or ask anything about the mayo on his sandwich. It upset her. He smirked at her that she’s not gonna get that position. It discouraged me about why all-male co-workers, directors, etc from the different industries always very controlling to all women and punishing their mistakes including sending the wrong food order or not cooking the meal right.

By the time Christine went back to her desk, she met an older woman named Slyvia Ganush to request another extension loan. Christine does feel concerned about it and feels that that woman doesn't deserve this, especially that she's also a very sick old lady who needed help. She has to make her own decision, according to Mr. Jacks. It turns out that Christine was fully desperate for everything to get what she wanted. I can tell, in my opinion, that she's begun to stand up in the wrong way after all those comments-‘too naive”, ‘not aggressive’, or “ little girl from the farm”. It was the most devastating moment when the extension loan was now rejected. I'm like Mrs. Ganush, I don't want to be a burden to anyone who's been close to me. She shouted for the security and pushed Mrs. Ganush. It feels that “being too nice” or “too weak”, after being judged, wants to stand up better-but sadly, it ends up with major consequences, which is the most difficult the thing to do especially being sympathized. I can tell that Christine was also a people pleaser, according to the video, because she wanted to please everyone to be a very loyal, good-hearted person. All of my acting coaches, including Alison, and both of my best therapists gave me some good advices about it. One of the advice is that awareness is a major key. They also told me that we still have to keep reminding ourselves of any situation including making our better choices, learning to have fun with acting/drawing, and give our some rest after our stressful day. Another important advices what they said is about not taking big leaping steps, just take smaller steps(one step at a time-one split second) like setting healthy boundaries and taking compassion in a good way.

This is when I was doing that CreamTober 2020 on Instagram and Twitter by an artist, creamsherryart and I thought I could make it a scene while Clay was at the session(poses from Adorestock/Senshistock)

After the attack from the garage and the fortune-telling scene, it turned out that Christine had been cursed. Was it because of her darkest things, like her true colors, in reality? People pleaser? Her eating disorder? Her bad decisions from her work? Her other deepest secrets from the past? After Clay went out for his meeting, She settled down at the house. During that, she was working on her files and baking the cake for the family dinner. Abruptly, a photo flew out of the cookbook. Christine picks up a photo, stares at it but is angrily disgusted. It was an old photo of her when she was a kid, but overweight, at ‘Pork Queen Fair 1995’. She sees herself as “another pig from the farm” in the photo because of her weight and her environment, especially when Clay’s mother said ‘little girl from the farm’ or ‘the one from the farm’. Or maybe both. She looked very disgusted and disappointed with the way she looked like a child, where she comes from, and her past was very odd than Clay’s. Christine crumbled it aggressively.

It reminded me of when I looked at many photos of myself from adolescence to my early twenties,(also my early 30s) when I wasn't thin enough or I don't look feminine enough. I was tremendously disgusted. I looked like a monster when I smiled since 5th-6th grade. I wasn't very happy with the way I looked. I wish I could destroy or retouch as many photos of my old self as I could. My body dysmorphia has never been as easy as you think. It's always been hard these days.

After crumbling the photo, a bizarre noise appeared. It turned out the punishment had just begun. Christine has been beaten by the demon. Clay was worried about her after the trauma she had that day. It also concerned me, but it did hit me deeply about having a major trauma including abusive relationships in school or work like nothing happened and move on. It does make sense about PSTD after the doctor came by.

A close up drawing, inspired a screenshot of a film/behind the scene, when I was doing a Hallowhimsy 2020-sinister nightmare

I agree with many references/resources about the Fly scene. In reality, instead of a fly buzzing inside of her body, it was her stomach growling repeatedly when she arrived at work. The same thing has happened since she was sleeping. And yes, it happened to me too, ironically. It happens while I was sleeping in the middle of the night, been exercising all day, or I haven't eaten much since morning/all day. It does makes sense indeed that our hunger gives us headaches, mood swings, fatigue, lightheadedness, and difficulty remembering/concentrating.

A fly buzzing or a growling stomach?

(CW-Blood) After the aggressively nose bleeding and the blood pouring out of her mouth, Christine walked away, terrifying. Unfortunately, she left her important files on the desk. Consequently, Stu took it. Christine finally arrived at Mrs Ganush’s house. When Mrs. Ganush’s granddaughter, IIenka, appeared; she looked very furious. Then she asked if Christine used to be a ‘fat girl”. She's taunting Christine like she wanted to make Christine feel ashamed, mortified, or humiliated after denied IIenka’s grandmother's extension loan. You can tell that wickedly smirk on her face. It's like when we’re being punished, someone wants to humiliating us and making us uncomfortable, including from the past, after the bad things we’ve done. You might see many scenes, feeling squeamish or nauseated, and ask “why is it always going into her mouth?” You also notice or wonder why Christine has been through purging since she was overweight in the past.

Very classic, but always adorable poster(it's in the back of the door from Christine‘s bedroom) Like Alison said- it's very tricky to “hang in there” but it's gonna take awhile

After visiting the house, it turned out that the punishment became more serious. It's seriously against Christine that she deserved it after doing a terrible deed as she thought- she denied the loans and then Mrs. Ganush passed away when Chrstine wanted to apologize but it was too late. Christine had been beaten and tormented by the demon again. Then suddenly she did another bad decision; but, it had gotten worse as we thought. By the time Clay came, he thought it's better off for another time for the family dinner. Sadly, Chrsitine wanted to join to get over it. But Clay was still concerned about Christine and her wounds.

When Clay and Christine arrived, You can tell that Trudy, Clay’s mother, was still not pleased or impressed with Christine, especially the Harvest cake. But in the dining room, she's began to interested with Chrsitne a bit after her job she was doing and the promotion. When Trudy said that Christine's family would be proud of her. Unfortunately, things are getting deeper, “I suppose” Christine replied. Christine had no connections with any of her family or relatives at all. It was too personal Clay said.

When Christine spoke to Trudy that she lost her father and her mother became an alcoholic, she was still ashamed. I'm glad that Trudy learned a lesson and said that there’s nothing to be ashamed of that pain and told her that she wasn’t alone after she said that she had an alcoholic parent as well. It impressed Christine that she got backbone. It may be why Christine had been through with a food addiction to cope with her pain-living from the bad lifestyle, the loss of the family, and living with an alcoholic parent.

I also had been through major pain for years. Divorce and bullying was part of my major trauma and deepest wounds since I was about to started in middle school. My mom became an alcoholic as well, but both of my parents had been through with deep depression. During that, all of us had been lost the connection and we had those chaotic on/off relationships. In high school, the divorce turned bad and even my depression turned more deeper than both of my parents. I tried nothing to be ashamed, even though it's still hard to talk to someone especially when I tried to be honest about what's been bothering me these days, months, weeks, and even years.

During dinner, the hallucinations and disturbances came back. Christine's food, including the cake, turned disgusting with dirt, maggots, and eyeballs (yuck) while others enjoy eating because of the issue of her eating disorder. This body language is like,in reality, “I don't know if I should eat this.” Then, the conversations turned haywire like talking too fast or dont know what they’re talking about. I understand that it's quite common when someone is not eating. The same symptoms and traits from premenstrual disorders, anxiety, ADHD, depression, and autism. It happened to me too. It also makes sense about why Christine can't eat anything, if she does -she would vomit, choke, or gag(especially when the fly came out). After the louder intense noises, screaming, and throwing the glass on the wall, it turned horribly disaster. Christine walked away, she felt horridly embarrassed.

After the unsuccessful forgiveness, terrible decisions, still being humiliated and tormented, the worst dinner moment, loss of a job position, and failing to reach the 10k for the important session, she felt miserable and her life turned into a living hell.

I can tell that she may have had been restrictive many foods including dairy and meat because of her weight issues and food addiction from her childhood. It's very odd that she's “lactose intolerant”. I wonder if she was eating the lactose-free ice cream? Was she hiding it from him because of her weight/food issues. I do have some of lactose issues(mostly ordinary milk) like really gassy or feeling bloated. I ended up using the lactose-free milk so that would be simple to digest. She may say “whatever, I don't care...I just want ice cream.” Clay finally said that he paid the 10K to Rham Jas. He said that he understood the pain Christine had been going through especially after the incident. That sounds like a wonderful boyfriend for being very supportive, not just financially, but emotionally as well.

After the seance, it turned unsuccessful. Also, the hardest thing is that to dealing with these words like “you deserve it” “you will burn in hell!”, “crazy” “sick girl” “b****”, “fat girl”, “dirty pork queen” and “black-hearted w****” which may turn out to be Christine's triggering, intrusive thoughts. At the diner scene, You can see that Christine looks hungry, anxious, and eager for sending a cursed button to someone else instead. It's like having social anxiety, alone, while looking at the happy families and cute couples. I can tell that expression and energy of Christine that she does look hungry, and eagerly awaiting someone approval, including Stu. I know some people would say ‘why she's being a b****?’ ‘why she's so grumpy and mean?” “she’s so selfish”. Well, she's not, at all. It happens to everyone and even us. When we get very hungry, we can get cranky, fussy, or moody.

When I shared my issues about body and food with Alison, she understood that deeply. I had an obsession with food as an emotional eater during my middle school from divorce, bullying, and pressure to fit in, etc. I ended up like only food would make me feel better instead of having friends and having some family moments, etc. I learned a lesson that if I eat too much or eat something bad, it would destroy my image. I have to keep active and doing more exercise. If I didn't to do it very much, it would turned me back from the past.

Alison shared hers with me when she was 18 and began acting. It pressured her about her weight personally. The same issue was one of her early works from 2000 called “Sharing the Secret.” It also happened when I was an emotional eater during divorce. She also did tell me that food should never be the enemy but nourishment and enjoyment to us. From my trauma and pain, it's still challenging. I still have had that love/hate relationship with food for over 20 years. And yes, it takes a lot of work as Alison said. We have to retain or reframe our thought patterns, especially looking at the food differently.

I do understand that Christine had deadly sins are between Greed and Gluttony. It's always been scary to dealing with growing up from a religious home state if we did any of those seven deadly sins-which means that we get seriously punished and sent to Hell. However, it doesn't have to be extremely or flawed or bad and then being punished by God and sent us to hell, according to The School of Life: The Seven Deadly Sins. About Gluttony, it doesn't have to be that eating too much on purpose like just being hungry for food, it's about “emotionally hunger/starving” like feeling empty like a bottomless pit deeply inside of our body.

Another thing I agree with what the director, Sam Rami, said that ‘It's about a character who wants to be a good person, but makes a sinful choice out of a desire for her promotion and pays the price for it.’

It's about the behavior that made us unfortunate psychologically, not just spiritually.

My major sin is Envy. It's when I have had been through decades after the wounds are still inside of me. I’m still desperated and I wish I can be perfect and worthy like my friends,etc.

At the end of the film, it's always been heartbreaking and shockingly unfair. I agree with Alison. Of course, horror always has a sad ending. Before the movie ended, I felt happy and cheered for her to have a brighter and happier future. Christine got the promotion as the assistant manager and became a future wife for her wonderful husband. Sadly, the future has always turned bleak as I thought, the same thing for me, especially the current pandemic since Early 2020. I always keep believing that there is no happy ending(some maybe).

I know I have to keep reading and understanding the book called ‘The Four Agreements’ by Don Miguel Ruiz(one of the recommendations that Alison shared with me), especially that I shouldn't make too many assumptions. Forgiveness is still important to all of us. I also understand that we should forgive ourselves more than others, especially we have to take care and focus on ourselves more for the better. It's still very tricky. I have to keep doing what Alison, my other coaches, my friends, family, and therapists told me to do.

Here are simple list of reasons why I felt inspired-

  • Perfectionism
  • ‘Masking”(try to fit in)
  • Social Stigma/Social acceptance
  • Desperate to be success
  • Seeking approval
  • Making Assumptions
  • Seeking to have a better life from our difficult past
  • Eating disorder/disordered eating(On+off relationships with food)
  • Felt pressured to make everything right /fixing the problems
  • Body shamed by others/body dysmorphia
  • Our bad mistakes turned us into a bad person
  • Been “cursed” by our flaws, etc.
  • Take it too personally
  • Punished/tormented by our own personal demons(inner demons)
  • Trying our best
  • Desperate to find our own happiness

Resources/References

After Dark Analysis[youtube channel], September 4th, 2017; ‘Drag Me To Hell and Eating Disorders’ from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB1fDQwnvAw

Movie clips Trailers[youtube channel] March 5th, 2013; ‘Filmnati: Drag Me To Hell & Bulimia- Cinema Conspiracy -The Real Story-HD Movie’ from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVJtlysQw58

Chris Henrie[youtube channel] October 2nd, 2016; ‘Horror Movies That Are Actually About Eating Disorders!’ from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A-ECz07Jmk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_Me_to_Hell

The School of Life [YouTube Channel], June 16th, 2017; ‘The Seven Deadly Sins’ from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMjF_100onI

2:45 [YouTube channel],June 23rd, 2021; ‘Interviews with director Sam Raimi, actress Alison Lohman, and actor Justin Long’ from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whsCgq6S8oY

2:45[Youtube Channel], June 23rd, 2021; ‘To Hell and Back interview with actress Alison Lohman’ from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61xRefZb7_M

movie review
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About the Creator

Meghan LeVaughn

I'm Meghan. I’m almost 36. I always love to be creative and using my imagination since I was a little girl. I like stories & love to share my inspirations, journeys, etc.

www.twitter.com/MegsDreamDesign

www.instagram.com/meghansdreamdesigns

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