Director: Don Coscarelli
Stars: Chase Williamson, Rob Mayes, Paul Giamatti, Clancy Brown, Doug Jones, Glynn Turman, Fabianne Therese
There’s a drug on the market called Soy Sauce which allows you to shift between dimensions. The world is being invaded by beings from another dimension. The world needs heroes. It has Dave and John…
John Dies at the End is a surreal film that starts off feeling unique and fresh with some good humor and it had me laughing loudly a lot. Then, as the story gets going it just falls down and loses itself. I don’t know exactly what it is about it but it just sags and doesn’t feel like it’s going anywhere past the first act. Maybe it’s better if you have experience of hallucinogenic drugs. I don’t.
For a film that’s about the end of the world it doesn’t feel like anything is at stake, and this apathetic feeling doesn’t do anything to endear me to the film or the characters. It feels like the director just had an idea for a lot of surreal, funny vignettes and tried to stitch them together with a plot, but it doesn’t really work and this is one that, while the surreal nature of it will speak to some people, ultimately it’s going to fall flat for the majority.
