Horrorfest 2013 Presents: John Dies At The End (2013, Don Coscarelli)

Yes I know this movie is based on a book. Considering that the movie adaption just freaked me out and left me wondering exactly what the hell I just watched, I want to read the book. Damn soy sauce man, or the black oil, or whatever that thing really was….I don’t understand. Viewing this movie while drinking failed to do me any favors: the terror I felt was amplified more by the alcohol. I need to see John Dies At The End sober, and yet I’m afraid to because the movie took me to dark places, areas I didn’t want to go. It’s fitting to watch a movie about a drug that amplifies the human mind, sweeping the brain and psyche into worlds that you did not think were possible to enter into to while intoxicated on beer.

David is the film’s main protagonist, telling Arnie a story about his misadventures. Arnie of course does not believe David, yet David proceeds to inform him about the creepy nightmares that dwell beneath our main plain of normal life. The real world is not the real world, no, for there are other lands out there waiting to be found. All you have to do is inject or digest this black subsistence into your body, thus heightening ones perception and expanding ones mind into the infinite. This what I think anyways, as the film is never really clear as to how this drug exists in the first place. Oh and Clancy Brown knows exactly what’s going on because well he’s Clancy Brown. Duh.

Even though the last act drags a bit this is a film that dives into that special brand of weirdness that you never forget. I’ll remember the random worm creatures, the magical Jamaican guy who introduces David to the possibility that his understanding of the universe is too limited, and that at some point the dog has a better knowledge of what’s going on than David, John, or us, the audience, actually do. Bark Lee rules. Its been too long since I’ve viewed a movie quite like this one, where I’m not sure what is going on but it doesn’t matter since my mind is completely blown and I’m in awe of what is happening. We need more films like this one, not less.