‘John Dies at the End’ Review

Release Date: January 25, 2013 (Limited)
Currently Playing On Demand
Director: Don Coscarelli
MPAA Rating: R
Film Pulse Score: 6/10

When I first heard that Don Coscarelli, the director of Phantasm and Bubba Ho-tep, was set to helm the adaptation of David Wong’s novel John Dies at the End I was both excited and cautiously optimistic. The novel is an insane trip through a world with parallel dimensions, time travel, monsters, ghosts, door knobs that turn into penises, and just about everything else a twisted mind can think up.  It’s a long journey and it seemed like one of those books that wouldn’t fit into one low-budget film.  While the movie wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been, it’s just a shame to think about what it could have been were it not for budget constraints and a limited run-time.

The film follows David Wong  (Chase Williamson) and his friend John (Rob Mayes) who inadvertently become paranormal investigators after being exposed to a mysterious black liquid they dubbed “soy sauce.” In addition to dispatching creatures and demons back to whatever world they came from, these two slackers uncover a plot that could destroy the world as we know it.

Although I’m trying to keep the plot of this film short and concise for the sake of brevity, I realize that there’s so much to this story, I probably didn’t really convey the absolute craziness of it all.  This is exactly how the movie itself ends up.  There is so much happening in the novel that much of the big picture stuff gets left out of the film.  It’s clear that Coscarelli did the best he could within the constraints of a 99-minute film, but it deviates from the book to such a degree that many things feel unexplained and not fully developed. The beginning sticks very closely to the book but begins to stray during the second and third act.

That’s not to say the film doesn’t have the same feel tonally however.  David and John live in a reality where literally anything could happen at anytime, and this madcap world was adapted well to the screen.  Think of something like a cross between Bubba Ho-Tep and Evil Dead and you have the style of John Dies at the End.

The structure of the film is laid out exactly like the novel. Right out of the gate we’re met with a crazy scene involving Dave telling a bizarre anecdote involving an axe and a corpse that won’t stay dead.  Then we jump into a meeting between Dave and a reporter (Paul Giamatti) who is writing a piece about Dave and John and their bizarre line of work.  The story is then told by Dave in the form of flashbacks, with occasional jumps back to the present. This style isn’t something new, but it worked better in the novel simply because there was a bigger story to tell and more interaction with the reporter.

On an effects level, this movie was atrocious.  The CG looked like something from an episode of Dr. Who, but it was clear the filmmakers did the best they could with the small budget they had.  If this had been a bigger production the effects would be inexcusable, but in this case it gets a pass.

Overall, John Dies at the End is an ambitious film adapted from an ambitious novel, and it’s entirely too weird not to recommend.  I can’t help but wonder if this would be better suited as a trilogy or an HBO or Showtime mini series though.