I wish I liked John Dies At The End a lot more than I do.
Don’t get me wrong, on one level I’m absolutely gung ho. After all, this is an
independently financed passion project from a great horror director (Don
Coscarelli, believed in the project so much he sunk his own money into
the work even before John was picked up by a major publisher) based on the signature novel of one of my favorite authors. To add
another twist, the film is currently undertaking one of the most ambitious on
demand releases since the start of that experiment. An attempt to build word of
mouth, while simultaneously releasing the film in theaters. An attempt that
seems to be working. (I myself had intended to hold off until a theatrical release, but the spirit is willing the flesh is yadayadayada, so I ended up making this my first "On Demand" film)
So at the very least you have a fun movie, that is a passion
project from an honorable filmmaker, which will expose thousands of new fans to
one of my favorite authors, all while proving viable a new form of
distribution that will allow more interesting and risky genre cinema to be
made.
And I can’t quite help but feel that it misses the point
entirely.
Let’s back paddle a second here, if you haven’t read them
the John books by “David Wong” (A pseudonym for Jason Pargin) does for horror
what Douglas Adams does for Science Fiction. Following John and Dave, two low
prospect men who take a drug called Soy Sauce which gives them incredible
quantum insight into the universe, but also puts them in the sights of a
malignant being beyond space and time. Through some bizarre alchemy he creates
books that are simultaneously hilariously funny, genuinely frightening, and
which tackle the big philosophical questions in between the dick jokes and
exploding heads. The average page of Wong will make you laugh, cringe and then
contemplate the implications of The Dunbar Number on humanity’s future. And all
the while Wong races towards the apocalypse with gleeful abandon.
John Dies At The End, gets the gleeful abandon part but
skips the rest. On one level, it’s actually quite smart as an adaptation. Wong
wrote a book with a very particular structure, (it was originally written as
three novellas released for free on the internet) and which would require a
Michael Bay budget to pull off. Coscarelli skips both headaches, by reordering
most scenes and repurposing others, creating what is basically a faithful
adaptation in an entirely new framework (a new framework that as you might
guess skips some of the more expensive bits). And if you think that’s easy to
do I have a long sad story about Cloud Atlas to tell you. Only once, when a
popular character from the novels is basically trotted out as “a special guest
star” does this technique come off as as awkward.
What John lacks is not narrative faithfulness, nor exploding
heads. It keeps the gleeful abandon of John Dies At The End, but it forgets
that gleeful abandon is not the thing that made that work special in the first
place. What made Wong’s novel stick is as about an accurate portrait of
alienation as you’re going to find outside of a Camus novel, coupled with the
work’s absolute fearlessness in tackling heady philosophical and existential
dilemmas. I didn’t expect all of that to be in the film, but I didn’t expect
none if it to be there either.
There is little to separate
John Dies At The End from any
number of films made by dudes who love
Evil Dead 2 a whole lot. Now don’t get
me wrong there’s nothing wrong with this, I am nothing if not a guy who loves
Evil Dead 2 a whole lot, I’m considering having it chiseled on my tombstone.
Taken on its own merits
John Dies At The End is an innovative, creative slice
of genre fun, with some great moments. If that’s what you’re looking for, and you’re feeling adventurous
and have seven bucks in your pocket that you don’t know what to do with, I
highly suggest you give the film a whirl on demand, or see it when its released
in one of these new fangled “Theaters”. Just do yourself a favor, think of it
as the trailer for the book.
...
If you want to hear more thoughts on The John novels, you can find them in Son Of Danse Macabre. Available from
Amazon and
Barnes And Noble.
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