John Dies At The End

Making a movie from a novel is not easy. Especially if the novel becomes loved by people, who love a very different story. John Dies At The End is one example, this novel may not have been the biggest best seller of all time, but still got attention for being original. Published first as a webseries, all the stories were collected an published in 2007 into a novel by author David Wong. When the buzz started about John Dies At The End, was to become a motion picture, fans were pretty skeptical. How can you make a movie on a novel like this ? With the legendary actors Paul Giamatti and Clancy Brown onboard the project, is this motion picture a very cool original adaptation, or is this a failure ?

David Wong ( Chase Williamson ) claims he have psychic powers. While meeting reporter Arnie Blondenstone ( Paul Giamatti ) at a restaurant, he tells him stories of strange happenings, while Arnie is not sure if he belive him. As the story begins, David wakes up when his cellphone rings. It is his friend John Cheese ( Rob Mayes ) who is calling. He have a customer who needs their help. Since both David and John try to help dead people who come back, they have their own business. This girl that contact John, claims her dead boyfriend has come back and never leave her alone. They agree to visit her house to see if they can talk to her dead boyfriend, but something seems wrong. They find no evidence of his existance, instead it turns out the girl tricked them into a trap, who explodes into snakes and reform into a monster of meat of sausages from the freezer. The meat creature wants a showdown with it´s nemesis, TV infomercial psychic Albert Marconi ( Clancy Brown ). David arrange to get Albert on phone to talk the the creature, as Albert destroy the creature with his special Powers through their conversation. Back at the restaurant, David begins to tell another story, where he is at a party, and meet a strange jamaican guy. He can tell David anything he want to know, he even know what he dreamed about last night. David is confused and leave the party, and wakes up, John is calling. He sounds very afraid, and beg David to come to his appartment. John claims someone is after him, but David can´t see no one. He finds a very strange needle, with black content. He asks John what this is, but John does not want to give information. But this needle might be the answer to what is going on.

I have not read this novel, so i can´t say i know if i enjoyed the novel more than the movie. I did hear an interview with director Don Coscarelli, as he explained he had to leave some parts of the novel out of his movie adaption, because it would have been hard to make everything fit into the storyline. So looking overall, what we are served, this is a very special adaption. Imagine a slice of David Lynch and The Cohen Brothers, with some elements of Sam Raimi ? Yes, this is definetely nothing for fans of One Direction. I love original movies that can stand on their own, even if they borrow influences from classic motion pictures and still deliver something fresh. John Dies At The End have so many strange ways to go, you have to follow to understand what the message is, or trust me you will be lost. And this is what i really enjoy about John Dies At The End, this is a weird movie in many ways, that feels interesting enough to find an audience, who enjoy original stories. Director Don Coscarelli use many ideas and try and puzzle these parts of the novel, all together into a odd mixture. There are some moments you feel certain details could have been better, but i have to say i like this. Finally someone tries to do something that does not follow the same pattern, give John Dies At The End a chance, you might actually enjoy this, even if you are skeptical. A Swedish release of the dvd and blu ray is coming out this fall, but you can watch this on Itunes, or buy the dvd/ blu ray from Usa, there are some great special features on that release.

Rating: DDD