Iconic director Sam Raimi has revealed that a sequel to his 2009 supernatural horror hit, Drag Me to Hell, is now in the early stages of development. The filmmaker made the revelation during a recent Reddit AMA, declaring that ideas for Drag Me to Hell 2 are now being bounced around, with Raimi hoping that the perfect way back into the tale will be found.
"The team at Ghost House Pictures: Romel Adam and Jose Canas, are trying to come up with a story that would work and I'm anxious to hear if they do!"
Released back in 2009, Drag Me to Hell was directed and co-written by Sam Raimi, and stars Alison Lohman as Christine Brown, a young woman with a loving boyfriend (Justin Long) and a great job at a Los Angeles bank. But her heavenly life becomes hellish when, in an effort to impress her boss, she denies an old woman's request for an extension on her home loan. In retaliation, the crone places a curse on Christine, threatening her soul with eternal damnation. Christine seeks a psychic's help to break the curse, but the price to save her soul may be more than she can pay.
The first Drag Me to Hell received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics, with one of the standout moments being the movie’s ending. SPOILER ALERT for a 14-year-old movie...Drag Me to Hell ends with Christine living up to the title and literally being dragged into Hell while her terrified and confused boyfriend looks on in horror.
How Would Drag Me to Hell Continue?
It is this definitive and wonderfully bleak ending that has left Sam Raimi unsure over how to continue the Drag Me to Hell franchise. Speaking in 2019, Raimi said he would be open to a sequel “if somebody had a good story.” He added at the time, “I don’t have a story, because in my mind the character got killed, and worse. So, I didn’t know how to proceed with the sequel.”
Raimi went on to state that “this is such a definitive ending that in my mind I didn’t know where to start with a sequel.” So, where will Romel Adam and Jose Canas begin with Drag Me to Hell 2? Could Christine have somehow found her way out of Hell and now lives as an undead being left in limbo? Has Justin Long’s character spent the last decade or so researching what happened to her and concocting a plan to save her from the clutches of Hell? Only time will tell.
Celebrated filmmaker Sam Raimi will next produce the science fiction action thriller, 65. Written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, and starring Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt and Chloe Coleman, 65 begins with a catastrophic collision on an unfamiliar planet. A pilot named Mills soon realizes that he has become marooned on Earth 65 million years ago and must traverse an uncharted landscape infested with dinosaurs and other dangerous prehistoric beasts in a struggle for survival.
65 is scheduled to be released on March 10, 2023, by Sony Pictures Releasing.