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Sunday November 3rd 2024

Drag Me To Hell| 2009

Drag Me To Hell filming location: Doheny Mansion, Chester Place, Los Angeles
Drag Me To Hell location: the seance in the Gothic mansion: Doheny Mansion, Chester Place, Los Angeles | Photograph: Big Orange Landmarks / Floyd B Bariscale

Leaving Spider-Man for a while, Sam Raimi returns to Evil Dead territory, with a high yuck factor, less overt gore and more than a nod to classic Fifties chiller Night Of The Demon.

The ‘Pacific Wilshire Bank’, in which Christine (Alison Lohman) unwisely refuses a mortgage extension to the kind of old crone who looks like she could cast a mean curse (Lorna Raver), was a deserted bank building, now a fitness centre at 18421 Ventura Boulevard, between Otis Avenue and Avenue Hacienda in Tarzana in the San Fernando Valley.

Boyf Clay Dalton (Justin Long) is a professor (uh?) in the ‘Department of Psychology’ at California State University Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge – also in the Valley.

The Gothic ‘Pasadena’ mansion of the medium, in which Christine tries to exorcise the curse, is the Doheny Mansion located on the downtown campus of Mount. St. Mary’s College on Chester Place. Built in 1899 as an exclusive gated community, by architects Theodore Eisen and Sumner Hunt for the Oliver P Posey family, the estate was purchased in 1901 by oil baron, Edward L Doheny. The mansion, which boasts a marble-pillared Great Hall, the Pompeian Room (with imported Siena marble) and a Tiffany glass dome, is open for occasional public tours, by prior booking.

The Doheny Mansion was the ‘Consulate of Genovia’ in The Princess Diaries, and has also been featured in Catch Me If You Can, Spider-Man3 and Shop Girl.

Drag Me To Hell film location: Everett Street, Los Angeles
Drag Me To Hell film location: Christine’s home: Everett Street, Everett Park, Los Angeles

Christine’s home, where she’s visited by the Lamia, is 1031 Everett Street, on tiny Everett Park, off Sunset Boulevard, southwest of Elysian Park. You might recognise the house from Training Day.

Drag Me To Hell film location: Union Station, South Alameda Street, downtown Los Angeles
Drag Me To Hell film location: Christine buys a new coat...: Union Station, South Alameda Street, downtown Los Angeles

After finally confronting the curse, Christine and Clay head off for a well-earned vacation. The pair choose to meet up at Union Station, 800 North Alameda Street, downtown – another familiar location, seen in Catch Me If You Can, Pearl Harbor and, of course, Blade Runner. Now, anyone who’s seen Night Of The Demon would have told Christine to stay away from railway stations...