Review for John Dies At The End

John Dies at the End sounds like the ultimate film spoiler and if you had no idea what the film was about you would be forgiven for thinking it was just some depressing indie film about death or such. That is not what this film is. Not quite anyway.

To describe the plot to this film would be like asking someone to explain Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia in one sentence. This is a film that bridges the genres of horror, comedy, fantasy with a little bit of the slacker ethos, but not too much. It's not a film that you could easily pigeonhole and in a way that makes the film unique.

Dave is giving an interview to reporter Arnie (played by the wonderful Paul Giamatti) about what he can do. And what's that? Well, thanks to a special drug called 'Soy Sauce' he is able to see things, see dreams, have heightened senses and also communicate with the dead. With his friend John, he has to defeat an ancient organic computer called Korrok with the aid of Marconi (played by Clancy Brown) in what can only be described as an exorcism with explosions. There is very little else that can be described about the plot without giving away spoilers, but it is a film filled with special effects, monsters, explosions and some really crazy moments.

This film is going to be one that split an audience in three ways. You will either love it, you will hate it or you will be too confused to have an opinion. To me the film is a mixture of all three. I appreciate what they were trying to do with the film and in all honesty I enjoyed it. The acting, particularly by the leads and Giamatti of course is excellent and when you learn this is Chase Williamson's first film you will be astonished at how well he performs. The mix of all the genres works to some extent and though I do wish they had gone all the way in one direction, but the film itself is able to keep a steady balance between horror and humour which helps it.

The two problems I do have is the use of effects and the plot. The effects, when practical, look awesome and it has a very original Evil Dead feel with creatures that you can tell were designed for human operation. The look of the 'Frozen Meat Monster' is insane and I loved what they did to create it. HOWEVER, whenever the evil CGI raised its head it was very obvious and looked awful. I understand if certain shots could not be created any other way, but because of this they made the film look like a Syfy original and not the great film that this film is.

Which brings me to the plot. My problem is not the mix of styles or anything like that. It's more that I have no idea what is going on. At times that is the point, but it feels like there is almost another films' worth of material that would explain what is going on. When I heard there were deleted scenes I expected that would fill in the gaps, but it didn't. It just felt like I needed a bit more explanation, rather than just introduce something or someone and expect me to go along with it. This also makes (as you can see from above) the film very difficult to describe and so how do you recommend what is as its essence a fun movie? I'm sure those who watched The Evil Dead for the first time had a similar issue, but at least that had a plot that you could follow.

The Blu-ray is filled with extras which is nice. Though I do wish that it would become mandatory for these to have subtitles as I am starting to tire of having to raise the volume to hear what is being said. Casting Sessions is nice, though could have done with an introduction or commentary to explain why they were chosen for the roles. Creature Core looks at the various effects and how they were created and operated. It is nice to see a film not rely entirely on CGI and this shows just how much hard work and effort goes into it.

Deleted Scenes again suffer from not having any context to why they were removed. Also by including them as one long ten minute segment you would have to watch the film again to figure out where the scene was supposed to go. Based on the scenes presented, I can only assume it was either for time or pacing as to why they were removed as they neither contributed nor took anything away from the final film.

Getting Sauce is a short making of with interviews with many of those involved and looking at the creation of the film. This is a little short, but the other extras and commentary fills in the gaps. The interview with Paul Giamatti is pretty great with him explaining why he was involved and just why he made the film due to his love of horror and the genre. He also gives a great description of the film 'Naked Lunch meets Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.'

The commentary on the film features Director/Writer Don Coscarelli, Chase Williamson and Rob Mayes who starred as Dave and John and Producer Brad Baruh. The only thing I would fault this on is that no one from the effects team is involved. Even as a separate commentary it would have been nice to have heard them explain in detail how they approached certain scenes.

John Dies At The End is an enjoyable film, just don't try and explain what it's about or you might find your head explodes. Just sit back and enjoy the film and pray for a sequel or prequel to fill in some of the gaps.