John Dies at the End Movie Review
 

Directed by Don Coscarelli. Starring Rob Mayes, Chase Williamson, Paul Giamatti, Clancy Brown.
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This was actually written by Tom Robbins on a bad acid trip. Not scary at all, but funny.

Thanks for writing that, stacilayne. Interesting read.

Curious... HDC doesn't rate the films they review? Or is that something optional?

When you wrote, "Maybe my expectations were too high. I didn't not like the movie, but it really began to wear out its welcome towards the end..", I got the impression you thought it was just OK; and that you weren't so impressed with the first half that the flaws of the ending were considered minor. Would that be true?

I agree with you, a poorer film description is "A punk rock Ghostbusters" (as it's not very 'punk rock'). Your description is much more on track with "Bill and Ted meet Dawn of the Dead", although besides one aspect of the subject matter, I don't think it had the mood of "Dawn", which remains cold and serious, although, like John Dies, pseudo-unintentionally humorous. I think the better description of film style, is how I described it to a buddy after viewing John Dies, which is "Bill and Ted 's Bogus Journey meets Evil Dead II". It's a very smart, highbrow script, that winks at the lowbrow (Bogus Journey), not to mention a quint essential buddy comedy film. To me the horror element was the style of Evil Dead 2, very tongue in cheek and also keeping a steady character warmth throughout.

Overall, I thought the first 3/4 of the film was so smart and impressive, that the much too sophomoric ending was a forgivable.

In regards to the ending, the "ghost hand" was a nice touch, and the portal, 'cult of Korrok', with the masks and church was a good foundation. Every other aspect of the ending seemed lazy, sophomoric and rushed -- in particular the bomb, the crude gay insinuation joke (out of character for John), and the dropping the bomb. I would love to rewrite a much more consistent and smart ending.