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What ensues is diabolic fun in the manner that only Raimi could pull off. After the first outrageous haunting that Christine experiences, there is little doubt that the old woman’s curse is real. And as the encounters become more wicked and physically thrashing, there is little Christine will not resort to in order to save herself from certain eternal damnation. Soon, there are dead kittens, creepy and bodily-invasive flies, sly hints at eating disorders, a demonic horned spirit, a possessed goat, and an extremely shocking and comical séance scene. There is little that Raimi holds sacred, including the burial of the dead. Christine is made to endure and stride through it all to get back the button that will save her from the hell fires. There are some tired tropes that Raimi touches upon—gypsy curses, socially ambitious women, fears of aging, “native” mystics—but he does it with such gleeful abandon and quickness that we are left falling over ourselves to keep up.
It seems likes Raimi’s intent to pick the nicest, prettiest and most moral possible victim for his special brand of mayhem. This could happen to anyone in his universe, including those who appear like the most undeserving of being dragged off to the netherworld by demons. As the inevitable nears, we find out that Christine abandoned her drunk and sickly mother along with her rural past. She has even used tapes to aid her in dropping her country accent. The fateful decision to deny that old woman her loan extension was not the first time Christine had made a sketchy moral choice; perhaps there are other instances of this mentality that Raimi only hints at. Maybe she isn’t the most undeserving of this curse. Each of us has a few troubled choices in our lives, some worse than others. Raimi is winking at us and our assumption that Christine could be all good. Near the end of the film, she is resolute that any one be saddled with this curse as long as it isn’t herself. She will go to any length to get that button back; she will not bear the blame for her bad decision. Raimi finds this struggle delightful. It’s kind of a cosmic joke to the director, but a well-done and shockingly horrific joke.
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