0

John Dies at the End with Don Coscarelli

Last weekend, I saw John Dies at the End which was presented by the director himself, Don Coscarelli! My wife and I made a trip into Chicago to see it at the Music Box Theatre. As you can see in the picture below, I was too busy chatting him up to think about posing. It happens! He's really nice and he signed some autographs for me. Cool guy. It was also great to hang out with some of my fantastic Chicago horror friends.

The movie is pretty good. It leans more towards Coscarelli's style in Bubba Ho-Tep than in the Phantasm films. It's just a really fun, trippy horror comedy. He said he didn't put much of the book in it, though there are certain familiarities for sure. The writing reminded me of A Scanner Darkly due to the snappy dialogue. The special effects are great. If I had to criticize anything, the friendship between the lead guys didn't feel very strong compared to the book. That gives some disconnect, but the movie was still damn enjoyable. It also has a Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer tone to it, too. I suppose it has a little bit of everything. Go see it!

 Another cool thing about John Dies at the End... Besides fun appearances by Doug Jones, Angus Scrimm, and Daniel Roebuck, one of my favorite modern illustrators worked on it! David Hartman aka “Sideshow Monkey” was the animator and he also acted as one of the spider victims! He's worked with Coscarelli before with Bubba Ho-Tep as an illustrator and the visual effects supervisor. Hartman does magnificent work. Check out his website here: Sideshowmonkey.com

I've done a few Phantasm paintings in the past. Here's a color piece of The Tall Man!