Category: News
Tags: Don Coscarelli, John Dies at the End, Paul Giamatti

Horror and comedy is a famously difficult combination to pull off in the movies. This new entry though is very promising though. John Dies at the End is the first novel by David Wong (real name Jason Pargin). Wong was an editor for the humorous site Cracked.com when the story was first written as a webserial in 2004. It was eventually published and became a best- seller. It’s the story of two slackers who discover a new drug. The substance (called Soy Sauce due to its black colour) gives the recipient a number of weird powers and allows them to see demons and other assorted monsters from parallel dimensions. It’s basically a tribute to 80s splatter movies (think From Beyond, Evil Dead, etc.), but seen through a modern Kevin Smith / Judd Appatow filter. In fact, it’s like a Jay and Silent Bob against the Elder Gods kinda deal. And it’s very gruesome and absolutely fucking hilarious.

Stuart Gordon's "From Beyond". Not particularly relevant, but it's always nice to revisit Barbara Crampton in THAT outfit.

And now, it’s going to be a film by Don Coscarelli, the man behind Phantasm and Bubba Ho- Tep. It stars Paul Giamatti, Doug Jones (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth) and the always awesome Clancy Brown (Highlander), as a badass master of the occult. Coscarelli is the perfect director for that kind of thing and I am officially stoked. The trailer premiered in Fantastic Fest a while ago. Check it out:

And while we on the subject, here’s a short excerpt from the book:

http://www.johndiesattheend.com/updates/?p=471

(-Dimitris Kontogiannis-)

About the Author: CnB