Review of John Dies at the End (2013) by Phil T — 29 Dec 2012

This isn't a completely faithful adaptation, but making one would be impossible within the limits of a 90-ish-minute movie; it needed to be a massive miniseries or, better yet, a twelve-part cliff-hanging serial by Republic or Monogram. Fans of the novel will be disappointed that memorable scenes or dialogue have been left out, and others may have trouble following the film, but there are many things it gets right. I expected a fail at capturing the extent of these seemingly clean-cut young protagonists' loserdom: these guys appear, on the surface, too much like the stalwart guys from "Supernatural" and not enough like Harold and Kumar, or Jay and Silent Bob. They inspire too much confidence. However, as it becomes clearer what it is they are facing, a sort of Lovecraftian coming of age in which we realize that all that Pickman's Model stuff is not only real, but in the dark corners of every room with us, we realize just how ill-equipped they, and by extension we, are. Oh, and Cthulhu? He's probably living next door and intends to visit you real soon.

I feel that the Dave character has too much screen time compared to John, who, after all, is the title character, but Dave emerges much as a young Bruce-Campbell-in-all-those-Evil-Dead-movies, reacting pretty believably over the top to events beyond comprehension. John? Well, his brain is fried anyway, right? Special effects were good where they needed to be, and where cheapness adds to the silliness of a situation, it only underscores the absurdity and the comic value. I believe the people who made this film had a teriffic time doing it, I believe it shows, and that viewers will be engaged and share in it.