Critics adored this film when it first came out in 2009, and I believe the reason is simple: it's something that's different from the rest of the onslaught of mainstream horror movies.
A Sam Raimi film through and through, this takes place in a heightened reality where the dialogue is purposefully all bluntness and no subtext, perhaps taking a jab at other horror films that do this on accident. Supporting this theory are all of the stock characters, including our main protagonist up until the last 20 minutes or so, which is easily the best section of the movie because she goes completely off the rails and it's great.
Most of the film contains scenes of her dealing with her curse when it's the least convenient for her, which I think would be funnier if Raimi leaned a little more into the tongue-in-cheek style that he was going for.
I feel like this screenplay needed a punch-up, or a complete heightening of the comedic tone. The finished project seems like an awkward attempt to be a horror-comedy but never goes all the way with the comedy.
An example of a film that nailed the tone I'm attempting to describe is James Gunn's Slither, which is a clear parody of b-movies and has plenty of genuinely funny humor in addition to genuine scares.
Drag Me to Hell never really made me scared and it also never really made me laugh, but I hesitate to call it a "failure" because there were certainly high points that make it worth seeing, mostly in the last 20 minutes.
I can see where the critics and fans of the film are coming from, but for the most part it just didn't do it for me.
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