Don Coscarelli directed Phantasm and one of the best movies that I've ever seen about a geriatric Elvis and a black JFK fighting mummies. He also connected with crazed internet writer David Wong to get the rights to John Dies at the End and turn a couple of deadbeats into world-saving heroes.
I think there's a hell of a lot to be said for indie films. Hollywood is busy printing money with Marvel properties and I'm so bored with it that I've kind of stopped going to the movies, but there are always indie groups out there who will make really interesting flicks.
I'm not going to lie: the acting isn't fantastic in this movie (but it's totally acceptable), the writing is sometimes kind of stilted (not too often), and the effects sometimes leave something to be desired (but not very much, honestly). This is NOT a polished, perfect, dull Hollywood picture.
It's something much better than that. It's a good fucking story that a lot of people worked really hard to present on film.
Though I should point out that SOME of the acting IS fantastic. Doug Jones is one of my favorite actors; it took me a few minutes to realize that he was even in this because I'm so used to seeing him under four pounds of makeup. In his first scene in the film (before I realized it was him) he has an incredibly touching and moving moment - a tear rolls down his cheek, slowly, as he ponders humanity and its desires all while talking about a man who masturbated until he bled.
I wish that I could adequately describe almost anything in this film without completely spoiling it, but that's surprisingly hard to do. The insanity of the characters and situations all relies on other insanity so taking anything out of context sounds purposefully obtuse.
Anyway, craziness aside, I enjoyed the movie. Some of the changes made from the book seemed to be a little bit problematic to me but that was probably just window-dressing that I missed only because I'd been expecting it. You should watch it and allow a little bit of madness into your day.
Cheers,
- Alli
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