John Dies at the End (2012)

A new street drug that sends its users across time and dimensions has one drawback: some people return no longer human. Can two college drop-outs save humanity from this silent, otherworldly invasion?

Director:

Don Coscarelli

Writers:

Don Coscarelli (written for the screen by), David Wong (based on the story by)

Stars:

Chase Williamson, Rob Mayes, Paul Giamatti

2 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Chase Williamson	...	Dave
Rob Mayes	...	John
Paul Giamatti	...	Arnie Blondestone
Clancy Brown	...	Dr. Albert Marconi
Glynn Turman	...	Detective
Doug Jones	...	Roger North
Daniel Roebuck	...	Largeman
Fabianne Therese	...	Amy
Jonny Weston	...	Justin White
Jimmy Wong	...	Fred Chu
Tai Bennett	...	Robert Marley
Allison Weissman	...	Shelly
Ethan Erickson	...	Sergeant McElroy
Kevin Michael Richardson	...	Korrok (voice)
Riley Rose Critchlow	...	Girl with Rastafarian

Storyline

It's a drug that promises an out-of-body experience with each hit. On the street they call it Soy Sauce, and users drift across time and dimensions. But some who come back are no longer human. Suddenly a silent otherworldly invasion is underway, and mankind needs a hero. What it gets instead is John and David, a pair of college dropouts who can barely hold down jobs. Can these two stop the oncoming horror in time to save humanity? No. No, they can't.

---

Plot Keywords:

multiple dimensions | male friendship | cult film | mind altering drug | bullet time | 

---

Taglines:

Just so you know...they're sorry for anything that's about to happen.

---

Genres:

Comedy | Horror | Sci-Fi

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for bloody violence and gore, nudity, language and drug content

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 January 2013 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dave's Story

Filming Locations:

Hot N Tot Cafe - 2347 Pacific Coast Hwy, Lomita, California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$12,467, 27 January 2013, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$141,307, 7 April 2013

Company Credits

Production Co:

M3 Alliance, M3 Creative, Midnight Alliance

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Color:

Color Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The uniforms worn by the two members of the Human Liberation Army were not made for this film. They originally appeared as Thermian outfits in the film Galaxy Quest (1999).

---

Goofs

When David meets Arnie in the Chinese restaurant, Arnie takes out a notebook. He opens it on the first page, with several ripped out pages. In the next scene, when he starts writing, the missing pages are gone and he is writing somewhere in the middle of the notebook. Later, the notebook is again shown with ripped out pages.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Dave: Solving the following riddle will reveal the awful secret behind the universe, assuming you do not go utterly mad in the attempt.
Dave: Say you have an ax - just a cheap one from Home Depot.
[slow zoom in on man chopping]
Dave: On one bitter winter day, you use said ax to behead a man. Don't worry, the man's already dead. Maybe you should worry, 'cause you're the one who shot him. He'd been a big twitchy guy with veined skin stretched over swollen biceps, tattoo of a swastika on his tongue. And...

---

Crazy Credits

At the end of the credits there's a warning that 'any unauthorized duplication and/or distribution (...) may result in civil liability, criminal prosecution and the wrath of Korrok'.

---

Connections

References Goldfinger (1964)

---

Soundtracks

Shang High
Written and performed by Paul Ratajczak
(Spozzy Song Music - BMI)

User Reviews

More fun than a box of elephants.

I haven't read the book, but I've seen the film. It premiered in the UK a couple of weeks ago as part of the London Film Festival. As a fan of Coscarelli's previous works, I wasn't going to miss a late night screening of this one. I saw about a dozen new films at the festival, but only one came close to being as wonderfully insane as John Dies at the End. I'm not going to throw spoilers, but if you can, try to see this in a cinema with a big sound system. There's as many audio gags as sight gags going on all the way through, and micro hommages to a few dozen cult classics. A very knowing work of art.

As with Bubba Ho-Tep, this film takes a mindbendingly outlandish premise, which through the course of events, and some wonderfully obtuse lateral thinking, persuades the audience that it's perfectly likely to be true. The boisterous audience at the showing I attended was fired up for the absurdism by Don Coscarelli's brief (unannounced) intro from the stage, but there's so many gags in this film that he could easily have taken a back seat and shamelessly guffawed along with the paying punters. If you like old school comedy horror, with a decidedly surreal tinge, go see this film. It's refreshing, but sadly all too rare, to run across a film that doesn't take itself at all seriously, but takes the process of film-making very seriously indeed. Script, cast, design, direction, and production values are integrated seamlessly into a sublime delirium that is much more than the sum of its parts. I can't recommend it highly enough in these gloomy times.

In case you're wondering, Don Coscarelli in person is one very amusing guy, and mercifully lacking in Hollywooden airs and graces.