Even when graded on the off-kilter curve reserved for the works of filmmaker Don Coscarelli, John Dies at the End is a far-out trip. The writer-director of the Phantasm horror franchise and the absurdist comedy Bubba Ho-tep unleashes his most twisted urges in his new film, and the result is equal parts flabbergasting, embarrassing, and delightfully hare-brained. Adapted from David Pargin's satirical, serialized Web novel about a hell-spawned hallucinogen, John is less a story than a feature-length opportunity for Corscarelli to do anything that tickles his midnight movie fancy, without regard for narrative logic or good taste.
The titular John (Rob Mayes) is the dim-witted pal of sarcastic, hassled slacker David Wong (Chase Williamson). The film features a frame story wherein Dave relates his bizarre experiences with demonic mind-control drugs and alternate dimensions to a skeptical reporter (Paul Giamatti). Figuring in those experience are alien slugs, a fake Jamaican guy, a bratwurst cell phone, a Las Vegas psychic, a flying mustache, a talking dog, and naked worshipers of a Lovecraftian abomination. In short, it's Coscarelli's Naked Lunch (or, perhaps more precisely, his Class of Nuke 'Em High).
John Dies is undeniably a Bad Movie, but it's challenging to actively dislike a work that is so enthusiastic about its mission to be fractured and unpredictable. The screenplay isn't as witty as a drug-themed Satanic horror-comedy deserves, and the gags fall flat as often as they provoke a chuckle. However, the sheer maniacal energy and dopey glee on display in Coscarelli's film establish a cheesy allure that's difficult to resist. In an era when prepackaged quirk haunts the arthouse, John Dies at the End is a genuinely, unapologetically eccentric cinematic diversion.
