Justin Long Would Love Do a Sequel To Sam Raimi's DRAG ME TO HELL and He Shares Some Ideas
One of my favorite Sam Raimi movies was his 2009 horror thriller Drag Me To Hell, which starred Alison Lohman and Justin Long. The film told such a fun horror story and I’ve always wanted to see a sequel to it, but unfortunately it didn’t really do that well at the box office. I always thought that this film could awesomely cross over with the Evil Dead franchise.
In case you need a reminder, at the end of the film, Lohman’s character Christine was was dragged down to hell as her boyfriend watched in horror. I always thought it would have been awesome if once she got down there she ran into Ash who also could have been dragged to hell and they team up to escape. That’s my idea! Justin Long, however, has a very different vision for the sequel that would obviously center around his character, Clay.
When talking to CB about the possibility of a sequel, Long said:
"It's funny you say that because I remember leaving the screening when I first saw the movie and my manager, who was kind of like Jeremy Piven's character in Entourage a little bit, he had that energy, he was like, beaming, and I thought it was maybe just because the movie, because I was excited because I was like, 'Holy shit, this movie's so good,' and he goes, 'Sequel, baby! Gonna be a sequel!' I think he was seeing the potential for, I don't know what, dollar signs maybe, so it was the first and really only time I thought about [a sequel]. And I think maybe [director] Sam [Raimi], I think we talked about it, like, setting you up for it. And I wonder, I always wonder if the movie had performed better would that have happened. But I never paid it that much more thought than that. So I certainly didn't think about what the character, I never gave it that much thought aside from obviously it would be cool to do."
Long went on to talk about where the sequel would pick up with Clay after witnessing his girlfriend being dragged into Hell, saying:
"He would probably, I don't know, if you witness something like that, you are forever changed. Thankfully, I don't have any frame of reference as to how.
“He'd be a disaster. He'd be a mess. He'd be in an institution. And also he'd probably be accused of having killed her. I'm sure there'd be some sort of murder trial. And if that's his defense? Like, 'Oh, I saw her getting dragged to Hell.' He wouldn't be able to say that in court. He'd be put away. It's fun to think about."
While talking about the sequel, Long’s excitement for one grew and he went on to say that he’d like to get Sam Raimi and Lohman on his podcast to talk about it:
"You're making me really want, because I've been doing this podcast, and I've been dying to have Sam on it. So now I'm thinking it'd be so fun to get Sam and Alison together just to talk about that movie, to talk about other stuff. I have to do that. I haven't thought about this movie in a while, but now I'm like, god, there's all these things I'm curious about."
Long then offered his idea for a title to the sequel, Drag Me Out of Hell, which is actually perfect. Who knows, maybe one day Raimi will revisit these characters. It would be amazing if he did, but I know it’s a long shot.
Would you be interested in seeing a Drag Me To Hell sequel? If so, what would you want to see in the story?
In case you want a little refresher of the ending, you can watch it below: