 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: John Dies at the End • Year: 2012 • Country: USA • Director: Don Coscarelli • Main cast: Chase Williamson, Rob Mayes, Paul Giamatti • Runtime: 99 minutes • Production company: M3 Alliance TRAILER |
Don Coscarelli is one of those filmmakers that if you are a fan of horror and fantastic cinema, you must be aware of his works. Maybe it’s not in the first class division like other directors like Wes Craven, John Carpenter or Dario Argento, but for sure he should be in the Hall of Fame of modern horror movies. With titles like the Phantasm (1979 and on) saga, The BeastMaster (1982) or Bubba Ho-Tep (2002), as well as being part of the TV film series Masters of Horror (2005), he’s one of those directors that you shouldn’t miss.
Although he’s been active since the 70s, he hasn’t been one of the most prolific in having so many titles of his own. And after a while with no news from him, this movie John Dies at the End appeared without making too much noise. But being a Coscarelli film, it is necessary to pay attention to it because this man always has fresh ideas. The movie follows the trail of this american new age of horror comedy films like Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010) or Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer (2007), taking a classic horror plot, some demonic thread, and turning a low class loser guy into a hero. Coindicence that they all have then name of the characters in the title?
So here we have a small american town that is the center of an invasion from demonic creatures from another dimension. At first it gets quite confusing because of the narrative style, many flashbacks and time continuity changes. The action starts and you don’t even know what’s going on. But it slows down when the main character (Dave, John from the title’s best friend) gets interviewed about those facts to a lame journalist perfectly incarnated by Paul Giamatti.
The movie is congenial, it’s a story that doesn’t have anything special but told different. Most of the acting is pretty lousy, but I guess that’s part of the humor. But the special effects are quite good and we finally get to see some cool old school demons, and not only CGI abuse. It has the feeling of being a good classic 80s horror revival, both in the plot and the visuals, but with a new narrative touch.
Still, I don’t feel like rating it higher thatn 4/10. I have sympathy for Don Coscarelli and I really love 80s movies, but I don’t know why this one never caught my attention as it should. Maybe I just didn’t like the 2 main guys, too dumb and loser for my taste. But that’s just my opinion.
I recommend the movie if you are an 80s horror fan, and if you have a party with friends and you want to get fucked up watching a horror flick, eating pizza and drinking beer. After all, probably that is the reason why it was made.
RATE: 4/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1783732
