If you have watched Drag me to hell, you must have noticed on several occasions the protagonist has a history of obesity. We can see her drooling over sweets through a bakery window and there is this woman who later makes an explicit comment about it. And how can we forget the photo of an overweight child that reads “SWINE QUEEN”. Christine’s self-esteem issues are made obvious in much of the first half. The film clearly tries to showcase her insecurities caused as a result of her being overweight in the past.
Owing to these cues it has been made evident that Christine may have had a history of an eating disorder and the entire film is metaphorically representing her insecurities.
The film introduces Christine’s character as a young ambitious girl trying to make her career and find her place in the middle-class ranks of the society. Her family profession of being farmers is not something she is willing to continue and her biggest goal in life is to not be like her mother.
These apprehensions cause her to stay away from food as she thinks it will make her fat and disgusting again. Considering all these facts, fans have come up with a theory that suggests that Christine’s claim that she sees a demon is just a hallucination. Because it is the hunger that is driving her crazy and making her see things that do not exist. Remember the scene where a creepy hand begins tapping on the desk? In reality, it was just her colleague but the insecurities are aggregating and showing themselves in the form of unrealistic visions.
There is one scene where she passes out in the car and rams her car into a parking lot full of vehicles. But if you go to see, there is nobody following her. She just imagined a woman is following her.
An already insecure Christine is now drawn to the verge of a mental breakdown when she decides to see a Psychic. The Psychic tells her that there is an “Old woman’s curse” that is following her. And that could be the explanation to the nature of her hallucinations. The Psychic could be a fraud who has tricked her into believing that there is actually an evil power trying to take control of her. Although when Christine’s boyfriend is not allowed to be a part of the exorcism session, it hints that there is something shady about the claims made by the psychic.
The food is the ultimate stimulus to all the evil episodes Christine experiences is the main clue. Every time food is introduced in the frame, she gets attacked by the spirit. The Spirit only showing up in her house when she is in the kitchen. When she traps the spirit in the room, the spirit assumes the shape of pig hooves.
The starvation is the actual reason behind her bleeding nose, but the belief in the presence of an evil spirit has clouded her judgment which is why she thinks it is because of the curse.
The evil spirit in the form of an old woman is a representation of her bulimic anxiety. The ugly faced, toothless, candy stealing monster is doing pulling all sorts of disgusting acts to get her to eat. The one time she finally sits to eat, she finds an eye staring right back at her from the cake which leads to choking.
Bulimic anxiety sure seems like one disgusting experience. What do you think? Do let us know in the comments.
