Review: John Dies at the End (2012)

January 24, 2013 Reviews 1 Comments

Cast: Chase Williamson, Rob Mayes, Paul Giamatti
Director: Don Coscarelli
Country: USA
Genre: Comedy | Fantasy | Horror
Official Trailer: Here

Editor’s Notes: John Dies at the End open in cinemas tomorrow, January 25th.

Imagine your world as you know hanging in the balance and two men that, thanks to something known out on the street as “soy sauce”, have the ability to do something about it. Now imagine those two men are the two laziest friends you know. Stuff…stuff might go wrong here folks.

Such is the case with John Dies at the End, an adaptation brought to you by one of cinema’s most beloved cult filmmakers, writer/director Don Coscarelli (the Phantasm films, Bubba Ho-tep). Our story involves slacker best buds Dave (Chase Williamson) and John (Rob Mayers) who go through your usual post-college lifestyle until one night John gets hooked on something known as “soy sauce”, a new popular drug that has some unusual side effects. Side effects powerful enough to bring about some peculiar brands of evil and curiosity. It’s up to John and Dave to—well, to…you know what, to say more beyond this point would make your kidney explode.

Let’s put this out in the open: we are darned lucky that he got his hands on John Dies at the End. Morbid meets morbid, and they produced a love child cute enough to show off to your demon pals.

The gap between feature-length Don Coscarelli movies was starting to get unbearable. To think, it’s been nearly 11 years since he last put his personalized stamp in the realm of cult classics. Bubba Ho-tep brought along his beloved sense of horror, but it was in that film that we got to see a sunny view of his wonderfully morbid sense of humor, not to mention it was an gratifying reminder of just how loving he is of the material he handles. Let’s put this out in the open: we are darned lucky that he got his hands on John Dies at the End. Morbid meets morbid, and they produced a love child cute enough to show off to your demon pals.

Right from the get go we’re thrown a riddle in the form of scene that already stands out as one of Coscarelli’s finest sequences in his entire filmography. And it just builds and builds, growing and practically feeding off of how astute it is. Normally, extremely normally, movies with the overall attitude of smugness or even pride let it become their downfall. Upon first feel, John Dies at the End may seem like it’s full of bravado, and maybe it is, but that’s not pride or smugness you’re seeing. It’s eagerness incarnate. It’s like a fiend from another dimension that would love nothing more than a couple of hours of your time to tell you a story that would seem insane to us, but to him, it’s just another Tuesday. A couple of hours, accompanied by some snacks, and a wicked smile wide enough to fit your car through.

The team he assembled together, in front and behind the camera, are most impressive considering most of them (with the exception of vet composer Brian Tyler) are brand spanking new to the big leagues.

Stories can have some muddled parts though. Coscarelli seems to be a big fan of letting a sequence (or material) stick around, seeing how much gold can be squeezed. Most of the time it’s worth it, however small parts do seems a bit sluggish. The adaptation of David Wong’s crazy novel has a lot to say, so it makes sense to not rush the process; to make sure we get (or hell, don’t get) what exactly is happening to John and David. John Dies at the End could have definitely benefited with a tighter edit, but if that’s the worst of it, then once again…consider yourself really darned lucky.

The aforementioned stamp of horror, humor and love melt together like no other. The team he assembled together, in front and behind the camera, are most impressive considering most of them (with the exception of vet composer Brian Tyler) are brand spanking new to the big leagues. The heroes (or men that you would be ashamed to call heroes) are handled with high levels of enthusiasm by Williamson and Mayers. They’re no strangers to being in front of the camera in much smaller doses, but giving them the reigns to carry the story was an excellent move. Both production designer Todd Jeffrey and cinematographer Mike Gioulakis also make their feature debuts here, making the leap from shorts to shocks very smoothly. Jeffrey’s fondness of image mash-ups goes along beautifully with Gioulakis’ digital Red One-loving camera work. You combine that with a direction and screenplay that were born to be soul mates with David Wong’s debut novel, and you get a wonderfully gooey entry to the world of possible cult classics. Whether it truly deserves to belong there for good or not is up to you.

While it might not be fair to say that nobody else besides Coscarelli could have made this, it’s just weirder than life-sucking snails to think that someone else could have.

75/100 ~ GOOD. You combine that with a direction and screenplay that were born to be soul mates with David Wong’s debut novel, and you get a wonderfully gooey entry to the world of possible cult classics. Whether it truly deserves to belong there for good or not is up to you.

By Jaime Burchardt

My head's been consumed the art of movies & its creation ever since I was old enough to know what the word 'consumed' meant. The only way to reduce the pressure buildup is to write, edit, and direct. Chocolate milk also helps.