By Pat French
If you -like many adults- are suffering from a badass deficiency from your current diet of American cinema, and need a healthy dose of vitamin Kickass, then have I ever got a film for you. I knew about 2 minutes into John Dies at the End that I was going to watch this movie at least twice. Written and directed by the legendary Don Coscarelli (Bubba Ho-Tep, Beastmaster, The Phantasm series) and based on the book by Jason Pargin (using the pseudonym Jason Wong), John Dies at the End is a batshit genre-buster of a movie that will entertain any fans of the action-horror genre. Much like Cabin in the Woods (which I would also recommend) this flick plays around with the conventions and tropes of it’s genre and releases a highly unique and fun product.
The plot to this movie is far too complicated for me to fully describe without just giving a play-by-play but I’ll attempt to summarize as best I can. Young David and his friend John are paranormal problem solvers. They were plunged into the world of monsters and demons after an encounter with a mysterious black drug called “soy sauce.” What follows is a roller coaster ride of crazy monsters, possession, and dimensional travel. The film is framed by scenes of David telling his tale to skeptical reporter Arnie Bloodstone (played by Paul Giamatti in top form). Normally a framing device like this strikes me as lazy writing, but this film is so wild and unpredictable that even knowing David is going to tell Arnie the story assures us nothing of his fate.
The acting and direction of this film are both superb. Chase Williamson and Rob Mayes, as David and John respectively, carry the film brilliantly and believably. The script is tightly written (although there were some pacing issues) and the story cleverly moves from scene to scene. It’s been far too long since Bubba Ho-Tep and I can only hope Don Coscarelli doesn’t wait another decade between this and his next film.
Now I’ve been gushing a bit because I loves me some batshit insane horror. However, I do have a few criticisms to offer. For one, though the plot is tightly written, it moves very very fast and it’s easy to miss important details and have no understanding of why something is happening. Additionally, the beginning is a little unclear as to what is the primary plot of the film. Based on one of the initial scenes I was under the impression that the film’s plot was to follow John and David after they had already established themselves as monster hunters. It wasn’t until the origin flashback had clocked in a good half hour that I realized that the origin story was actually the primary plot. Finally, and I’m not sure exactly how I feel about this, the film’s credit sequence starts moving a new plot forward. It’s mostly in a facetious manner, but it adds to the disjointed feeling I got from the beginning. This isn’t nearly so irritating as the credit scenes in Big Man Japan (A truly atrocious film all around), because the scene is actually funny, but it is a tad off-putting.
All around, I liked this flick a lot. It’s new on DVD as of last week so look for it on the shelves. Aside from some mild plot concerns (which honestly wouldn’t bother a lot of people) it’s fantastically written and completely entertaining. It’s also got a real good twist at the end I was not expecting. If you like ridiculous shit as much as I do give this a watch.
Scared Stiff rating: 8/10
