Friday, October 08, 2010

The Drag Me To Hell Puzzle (Halloween Haunts 2010)

Nightmare #1.5 (no video on this one)

Warning, I spoil the ending in the movie Drag Me To Hell, so you may want to stop reading if you have not seen the movie and do not want to know the ending.

I investigated this one the same day as I did the one from two blog entries back. I took the train to the Union Station in Los Angeles. When I originally saw this movie I thought it would be really cool to simulate the climactic ending to the movie. In theory, it looked like it would be really easy. All I would have to find is "TRACK 14" and the nearby tracks.
Here our main character meets up with her boyfriend. Notice the white building high in the background.
Here is that building:
When I narrowed down possibilities I thought they could be just over there on the other side of the tracks:
Here? Based on the building behind them above I thought this is probably the best I could do, but there were serious problems here.
This was definitely not Track 14, but Track 2 or 3 (I forget, but probably 3). You will notice there are two tracks in the real station and NOT one that she eventually falls into to get "dragged to hell" as the ground opens up.
Now, let me show you where I started off thinking there was an easy Track 14 to find. NO! The tracks end at 12!
The interesting thing is if you look closely you can see the little rectangular train depot (I don't know what else to call it) in the background. That is in the movie picture above, but you can barely see it.
The problem here is both of these areas are on completely different sides of the station. Tracks 2 or 3 are on one while Track 12 is on the other. They are also facing opposite directions. That big building I showed you is not on this side either. There is nothing like that on this side.

Yet, both areas seemed to have been used? I do not know. It is possible the train station has changed since they filmed here. I doubt this though. I think they used some editing tricks here. They could have had a set built here on this side as well to make a track 13 and 14.

So, this is a puzzle to me. Sam Raimi, I need your help! ;)

Anyways, even though this was a "location fail" I think what I found was pretty cool. If there is someone out there that knows the truth on this then fire me an e-mail.

2 comments:

The Lazy Geographer said...

Looks like a digital composite shot was used to cover up some of the existing background to me.

The Great Silence said...

That maybe so. My gut feeling on this is they used some computer graphics on this to edit in their own version of the train station. Both the ground she gets "dragged" into as well as the train that comes over her are both CGI. So, they probably added in the right side of the platform you see them standing under. The cover they are standing under is not something I found at the station either.