I Sell the Dead

I saw this movie as part of the Midnite Madness at Sitges. Set in 18th century England, the plot covers the life of Arthur Blake from his first outing as an apprentice grave robber to his final confession on the eve of his execution.

The plot moves along via a series of misadventures involving Arthur and his partner encountering various unsavory characters and bizarre situations.

The first thing that strikes you about this movie is how accurately they managed to capture the look of the Hammer period horrors, the atmosphere is set with lots of fog laden graveyards, rowdy tavern scenes and excellent set/costume design.

For a movie titled I Sell the Dead, I was expecting the emphasis to be mostly on horror – don't get me wrong there are some jumpy moments and gore, but the tone is very much comedic, driven by the situations the characters get themselves into and their dialog. The closest comparison to the scenes between the two leads (Larry Fessenden and Dominic Monaghan) is the character interaction seen in the classic English comedies Only Fools and Horses, the Two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise.

The acting is strong and the casting of very familiar faces in Ron Perlman and Angus Scrimm lift the movie above many of the others on view in Sitges.

Overall the movie offers something very different to the current crop of mainstream horror and will leave a smile on your face.

"I Sell the Dead" is a horror comedy about a duo of sympathetic grave-robbers.Grimes(Larry Fessenden)and Blake(Dominic Monaghan)rob graves and sell the corpses in Victorian England.Things change when they unearth a body that refuses to stay dead."I Sell the Dead" is narrated by Blake who is waiting in prison for the date with Mrs.Guillotine.The monk played by Ron Perlman listens to his last confession.Pretty funny low-budget horror comedy with Gothic atmosphere and few lovely twists.The characters are entertaining and the film oozes of the E.C. Comics vibe.I am not a fan of horror comedies,but this one kept me quite entertained.6 grave-robbers out of 10.

I confess, I only watched this because I enjoy Ron Perlman, but I stayed with it because it is a hoot! It is neither excessively gory nor bloody, but it keeps its horror creds kinda side-wise, and kept me chuckling throughout. I find it hard to categorize this odd flick, but if you have the 90 or so minutes, give it a try - it is fun! The story line allows you to expect a bigger payoff than you get, but the actual story more than makes up for it. First you meet the apparent villain and his church appointed accuser. It rapidly becomes apparent that the real issues are not mundane but seriously supernatural!Vampires, zombies, grave robbers. The world is not as simple as you might wish. Oh MY - laugh and enjoy - it is worth the visit!

The story has been told in other movies too. But the way it is handled here (with the humor) seems far superior to other movies (even a recent one, made by Landis). The story is more or less told in a reverse way, which makes you wonder a few things (or maybe you will guess where it is heading quite early on).

The acting is really great and even the small role by Mr. Pearlman is just great. You couldn't imagine anyone else playing that role. He really is on par with Dominic M., who just is great in this one. There is life after "LotR" and "Lost" after all. And he is one of the guys who can say he made the most of it (not to mention his engagement with the wonderful Evangeline Lilly)!

What's this? Another recent title? It'd be ridiculous for your fellow ghoul not to keep current with today's releases. I'll try to keep this one brief because I'm still unsure of my opinion in terms of the outcome.

I Sell the Dead is about a man by the name of Arthur Blake (played by Dominic Monaghan, commonly recognizable as Charlie from Lost and also a hobbit in The Lord of the Rings trilogy) who confesses his grave robbing crimes to a priest named Father Duffy (your neighborhood friendly Ron Pearlman). Set in the Victorian era, Blake goes into detail concerning the exploits of his misadventures with his partner Willie. They soon come into contact with a rival grave-plundering gang led by the vicious corpsegrinder Cornelius Murphy.

Several twists and turns are contained within peppered by obvious comedic elements. Unfortunately, I've seen better attempts at black comedy on BET. As I mentioned earlier, rating this film is not an easy task. Part of me thoroughly enjoyed the artistic approach and silly premise. On the other hand, I had a difficult time interpreting the pace. Several scenes felt disjointed and out-of-place, leaving me to ponder whether or not it was intentional. The acting is solid, of course. If you enjoy the mixture of comedy and horror (which, to be honest, I'm touchy about) then I would recommend checking this one out. Shut your brain off and enjoy the show...just don't expect anything groundbreaking.