John Dies at the End

As a big fan of cracked.com and having heard about how one of the article writers, David Wong, had written an acclaimed book and then that it was going to be made into a film, I felt almost obligated to see it. I usually go to the London Film Festival every year with my dad and decided to see this as it looked like it wasn’t going to get mainstream distribution for a while.

The cult director, Don Coscarelli, was there too and I was surprised to find out afterwards that he is close to 60 years old as he barely looks 40. I should have done my research, all I knew was that he did Bubba Ho-Tep, but he also holds the record for being the youngest film director to have a feature film released with mainstream distribution at the same age as me, 19. This makes it even strange to see how John Dies at the End doesn’t feel like it’s at the hands of an experienced expert.

It’s way more independent and lower budget than I expected, but the cheap moments don’t come from the quality of production but from hokey script moments and poor cinematography and editing decisions. These are rare though and they’re a frequent problem for digital anyway. For the most part, the script is witty and the production benefits the film in the sense that it bristles with fresh and creative energy.

It’s great to see the potential and limits of what independent cinema can do. There are some great profound ideas scattered around, particularly one that I’ve always wanted to see explored in science-fiction properly which here involves an alternate universe where the only difference is someone 150 years ago not dying as a teenager and living onto adulthood and changing the entire world. It’s a very well-cast film too, almost entirely comprised of newcomers besides the only familiar face, Paul Giamatti, who despite only having two locations for his character, he is throughout the film and gives possibly the best performance.

The main set of characters are quite reminiscent of the scruffy groups Joss Whedon focuses on, in the way in which they have strong personalities and are developed properly. The film’s tone could be compared to The Cabin in the Woods, but similarly, it always relies heavily on special effects. It’s best when they’re David Cronenberg-Esque makeup effects than the CGI moments and I’m not sure whether it’s more cost effective to use CGI but they should’ve tried to go entirely old school with puppets and costumes and so on as they looked like the effects you’d find in video games from 10 years ago.

As the book is supposedly huge, there is a sense that this film is a part of something bigger and ends on an open note. Fortunately, rather than being unsatisfying, this plays with your imagination, and the playful creativity sticks with you for a while. With twists and dick jokes around every corner, John Dies at the End is a wild ride.