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Passes the Bechdel test

Drag Me to Hell

2009. Directed by Sam Raimi, written by Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    19 women characters. 8 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    In 6 scenes out of 74.
  3. Yes 3. About something besides a man
    In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

Poster for Drag Me to Hell

The film

Christine Brown is a loan officer at a bank but is worried about her lot in life. She's in competition with a competent colleague for an assistant manager position and isn't too sure about her status with a boyfriend. Worried that her boss will think less of her if she shows weakness, she refuses a time extension on a loan to an old woman, Mrs. Ganush, who now faces foreclosure and the loss of her house. In retaliation, the old woman places a curse on her which, she subsequently learns, will result in her being taken to Hell in a few days' time. With the help of a psychic, she tries to rid herself of the demon but faces several hurdles in the attempt.

Released
29 May 2009
Genres
Horror
Rated
PG-13
IMDb
6.6 / 10
Metascore
83 / 100
Awards
7 wins & 24 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Stephanie 272 lines, woman
  2. Ray 93 lines
  3. Rham Jas 65 lines, man
  4. Ellen 32 lines
  5. Trudy 28 lines, woman
  6. Mrs. Ganush 25 lines, woman
  7. Mr. Jacks 20 lines, man
  8. Shaun San Dena 19 lines, woman
  9. Ilenka 11 lines, woman
  10. George 9 lines
Full cast, 45 people
  • Alison Lohman as Christine Brown
  • Justin Long as Clay Dalton
  • Lorna Raver as Mrs. Ganush
  • Dileep Rao as Rham Jas
  • David Paymer as Mr. Jacks
  • Adriana Barraza as Shaun San Dena
  • Chelcie Ross as Leonard Dalton
  • Reggie Lee as Stu Rubin
  • Molly Cheek as Trudy Dalton
  • Bojana Novaković as Ilenka Ganush
  • Kevin Foster as Milos
  • Alexis Cruz as Farm Worker
  • Ruth Livier as Farm Worker's Wife
  • Shiloh Selassie as Farm Worker's Son
  • Flor de Maria Chahua as Young Shaun San Dena
  • Christopher Young as Pedestrian with Cupcake
  • Ricardo Molina as Male Mortgage Customer
  • Fernanda Romero as Female Mortgage Customer
  • Joanne Baron as Mr. Jacks' Secretary
  • Ted Raimi as Doctor
  • Ali Dean as Pawn Broker
  • Octavia Spencer as Bank Co-Worker
  • Mia Rai as Bank Co-Worker
  • Bill E. Rogers as Security Guard
  • Cherie Franklin as Cackling Woman at Death Feast
  • Olga Babtchinskaia as Violinist at Death Feast
  • Alex Veadov as Man with Ponytail at Death Feast
  • Bonnie Aarons as Mother at Death Feast
  • Emma Raimi as Daughter at Death Feast
  • Michael Peter Bolus as Mourner at Death Feast
  • Peter Popp as Mourner at Death Feast
  • Scott Spiegel as Mourner at Death Feast
  • Bridget Hoffman as Ghost at Seance
  • Tom Carey as Old Man in Headlights
  • Lia Johnson as Waitress
  • Jay Gordon as Family at Diner
  • Henry Raimi as Family at Diner
  • Lorne Raimi as Family at Diner
  • Chloe Dykstra as Young Couple at Diner
  • Nick Vlassopoulos as Young Couple at Diner
  • John Paxton as Old Couple at Diner
  • Irene Roseen as Old Couple at Diner
  • Aimee Miles as Saleswoman
  • Art Kimbro as Voice of Lamia (voice)
  • Sam Raimi as Ghost at Seance (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 26% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 74

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers
ScenesWomen's linesMen's lines
1 to 200
3 to 420
5 to 63014
7 to 800
9 to 10100
11 to 12397
13 to 14102
15 to 1650
17 to 181821
19 to 2030
21 to 2240
23 to 2440
25 to 2650
27 to 2850
29 to 3088
31 to 3220
33 to 34150
35 to 3600
37 to 3820
39 to 40117
41 to 4210
43 to 4430
45 to 4670
47 to 4820
49 to 50200
51 to 52370
53 to 54277
55 to 56165
57 to 5844
59 to 60113
61 to 623426
63 to 6460
65 to 66114
67 to 6893
69 to 7012
71 to 7210
73 to 74100

The evidence

  • Straight from the script
  • Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
MEXICAN WOMAN: And the house will be gone by then. STEPHANIE: It says, here your employed by Pemex?
MRS. GANUSH: I knew you'd come. Stephanie almost jumps out of her skin. As her eyes adjust she sees Mrs. Ganush sitting on a crate in the corner of the r… STEPHANIE: Hi. I'm here because I think I can help you. I can get your house back for you. MRS. GANUSH: It's so empty now. STEPHANIE: I can arrange for all your furniture to be brought back. Would that be okay? Mrs Ganush does not look up from the photograph.
STEPHANIE: Is that so? Ray gives her a reassuring nod. The front door opens revealing Ray's parents, GEORGE AND TRUDY: DALTON. Behind them we glimpse an exquisitely furnished foyer.
STEPHANIE: I hope you don't mind. I baked something for you. Trudy hesitates, then takes the cake from Stephanie. TRUDY: It's lovely. Homemade. STEPHANIE: It's a harvest cake. TRUDY: Harvest cake? Is'that some kind of cake you make on a... farm?
TRUDY: That's strange. Hecuba's usually very sweet. STEPHANIE: That's okay. I had a cat. I understand.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 77 are women's.

373 lines from women, 113 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

19 women and 21 men in the cast. 8 women and 12 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

A woman speaks the first line. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 9 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

  • First line by a woman
  • Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 76% of the words (7,033), men 24% (2,249). Women have 77% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Run the other way, for men, the film scores 2 out of 3.

Conversations between two named characters

Exhibit F: behind the camera

1 of the 11 people in these jobs is a woman. Across the whole crew, 22% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
Sam Raimi (man)
Written by
Sam Raimi (man), Ivan Raimi (man)
Produced by
Robert Tapert (man), Grant Curtis (man)
Shot by
Peter Deming (man)
Edited by
Bob Murawski (man)
Music by
Christopher Young (man)
Production design by
Steve Saklad (man)
Costumes by
Isis Mussenden (woman)
Cast by
John Papsidera (man)

The crew, department by department

  • Other crew

    7 women, 16 men, 11 not listed

  • Costume & Make-Up

    4 women, 10 men, 4 not listed

  • Visual Effects

    1 women, 7 men, 8 not listed

  • Sound

    3 women, 8 men, 3 not listed

  • Art

    1 women, 7 men, 2 not listed

  • Production

    1 women, 8 men

  • Camera

    1 women, 7 men

  • Editing

    0 women, 2 men, 3 not listed

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 47 on average. Men: 44 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Bojana Novaković 27, Alison Lohman 29, Adriana Barraza 53, Molly Cheek 59, Lorna Raver 65

Men

Justin Long 30, Reggie Lee 33, Dileep Rao 35, David Paymer 54, Chelcie Ross 66

Exhibit H: the money

It made 3.0 times what it cost.

Budget
$30 million
Box office
$91.4 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 74 scenes and 654 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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