Comedy and horror, as I've noted before, are strange yet good bedfellows. A horror movie will fail if its not scary or entertaining, a comedy is terrible if its not funny. I Sell The Dead (2008) manages to be a tad funny, and a little scary, although more so creepy, really. The film could have been better at doing both, yet the leads are so likable and the story captivated me enough to keep watching. If anything, this was one movie that deserves a sequel, or should have been longer-the stories Dominic Monaghan tells are truly interesting, and due to the film's short length details are lost or not fleshed out enough. Although granted budget restraints more than likely played a large part, in addition to the film obeying one of the standard rules of horror films: 90 some minutes is usually the ideal running time. Some great films of the genre have completely ignored that rule, and sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't. In this movie's case it could have been 2-3 hours long and I still would have tuned in.
Stuck in prison and due to be executed, poor Arthur Blake decides to give the story of, to quote him, "My life of crime," to some priest who is curious about the stories surrounding Blake and his partner Willie. What follows is countless depictions of violence, mayhem, hilarity, and the incredibly outrageous. A movie titled "I Sell The Dead" can be accused of not going far enough, but the moments when the film does actually cross the line there is a satisfying payoff. Endowing the film with a strong cheeky British sense of humor coupled with a decent amount of gore makes for a relatively engaging movie, certain clear limitations and flaws aside. I fully recommend this movie knowing well that its not pretentious or aspiring to anything too remarkable. Nay, its content to be good old fashioned fun, and right now the horror genre seems to be in short supply. 80
No comments:
Post a Comment