Director Sam Raimi and Visual Effects Supervisor Bruce Jones turned to Culver City-based I.E. Effects to deliver key visual effects sequences for Drag Me to Hell, which opened May 29.

	Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) begs Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) for a loan extension in Drag Me to Hell.

In the supernatural thriller, an ambitious young loan officer turns down a request for a third extension on a mortgage from an old Gypsy woman with one eye. In turn, the loan officer is cursed and harassed by the spirit of an ancient demon that will stop at nothing to take her soul.

David Kenneth, visual effects producer and founder of I.E. Effects, explains that the facility handled some 35 shots in total. "The project called for a lot of character design and animation. We were honored with creating the CG monster for the film, the Lamia," says Kenneth. "Shots like these typically go to much larger facilities, but our pre-vis was so well received that they awarded us the finishing work."

Other visual effects facilities involved in the postproduction work included Tippett Studio, Ghost VFX, Cinesoup, Howey Digital, Michael Kaelin & Associates Visual Effects Studio and Amalgamated Pixels.

	Mrs. Ganush exacts her revenge.

Aaron Kaminar, I.E. Effects’ visual effects supervisor and lead artist on Drag Me to Hell, explains, "The most challenging shots were the monster scenes and the sequence in Christine's bedroom. This is a horror movie, so the pacing of the story moves from long, slow sequences, which build suspense, to very fast, impactful moments. While you only see the monster in brief flashes, those few frames are some of the film's more memorable moments."

Jones originally came to I.E. Effects with a basic design for the Lamia and a low-res 3D model that had been used for pre-vis. "The idea was that you'd never really get a clean view of the monster, but we still had to come up with the details so that if fans went through the DVD frame by frame—which they will—the work will stand up," notes Kaminar.

"There were several VFX vendors that needed to use the Lamia model for various shots, so we became the contact point for the model and rig," adds Kaminar. "After we finished building the model, we rigged it and packaged it with a little ‘how to’ manual, which we posted for the other vendors."

	Christine climbs into her enemy’s wet grave.

For Kaminar, who previously worked as a compositor and digital effects artist on Raimi's Spider-Man 2, much of the work on Drag Me to Hell involved wire and rig removal and set extensions. In one sequence, Christine (played by Alison Lohman) is being flung around the room by an invisible demon. In production, the top of the set was removed and Lohman was suspended by a cable.

"The camera movement was pretty sporadic, with a lot of motion blur. So we had to re-create a good portion of the room in 3D, including some difficult 3D tracking to match the camera movement, and do a lot of keying and compositing to put Alison back in, minus the cable rig," he explains.

David Kenneth, who also worked for Raimi on Spider-Man 2, says, "There were a lot of high-end visual effects, compositing and CG elements involved in Drag Me to Hell, and we were thrilled to be a part of the project."

	Director Sam Raimi

About the Production
Director of Photography Peter Deming, who previously worked with Raimi on Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn and served as DP on the last two Scream films and From Hell, used realistic lighting in his shoots that goes progressively darker as Christine is drawn further into the world of the supernatural.

Says Deming of the process, “We went with a lot of source lighting and didn’t correct the odd lighting sources, like in the garage where everything is blue-green. Normally, you’d put all corrected bulbs in, but we went with what was there, including the shots in the street. We used the streetlight look and mixed that with interior lighting. There were a lot of odd color sources that we chose to leave the way they would be naturally. It’s a heightened sense of realism.”

For the séance scene, which has a richer color palette, the cinematographer used additional lighting effects and camera shakes to increase the feeling of anxiety and tension as the viewer begins to believe Christine has no way out.

Deming also took part in creating the atmospheric elements for scenes involving the Lamia, which included reflecting light against shaking Mylar and capturing the unnatural wind that blew leaves down the street. “Sam loves B-movie stuff,” Deming says of the high-impact elements. “He really embraces the wind out of nowhere and the camera shaking and the inventive, interactive lighting. He eats that up.”

The DP made a concerted effort to adhere to the script’s focus on the audience’s relationship with Christine. “From the beginning, Sam and I talked about being with her as much as we subjectively could throughout the film,” he offers. “We stayed right on Alison’s face a lot of the time. We covered scenes and gave her extra-tight close-ups, because we want the audience to be in her place.”