10) John Dies At the End

This film did the Sundance circuit in 2012 but didn’t get Theatrical release until early 2013, so I’m going to go ahead and say it counts.

John Dies at the End is a trippy horror comedy about two skeptic paranormal investigators who take a hallucinogenic drug called Soy Sauce, that reveals the secrets of the universe to them.
The film starts out a bit like a buddy comedy, with Dave (Chase Williamson) assuming the role of the uptight hipster, while John(Rob Mayes) takes on the persona of a carefree bro type. John  discovers the Soy Sauce at a party and takes it, and of course Dave is burdened with the task of saving his best friend from the possibly fatal effects. Both roles are played well, but the actors stick to the stereotypes they are written into.  It is the clever conditions and situations the drug creates that allow this film to break out of it’s mold.

Once the title character starts tripping, anything is possible . This is a movie where a doorknob can turn into a penis, and that’s ok. It is also acceptable for a man’s mustache to fly off of his face and for a monster to manifest itself from freezer meat. It is the absurdity of the film that makes it unique. The events that occur in the movie are so strange and weird, that they are actually very funny in an odd way. Don Coscarelli, director of Phantasm and Bubba-Ho-Tep, creates a surreal and nightmarish atmosphere that is equal parts eerie and hilarious.

The plot of John Dies is a bit all over the place so it is kind of hard to explain. The story is told from Dave’s perspective, as he recounts the story of John and the Soy Sauce to a journalist. After John takes the drug, he perceives time differently and becomes perceptive to beings from another universe. John is the only survivor who took the drug and he becomes the target of a police investigation. John and Dave also become involved in a Fringe-like plot to destroy a monster from another dimension that poses a threat to the known universe.

The film does not take itself very seriously and plays for laughs more than depth. There are plenty of questions left unanswered, but considering how many are posed, John Dies wraps itself up into a pretty satisfying and funny conclusion. The movie as a whole probably could have been more insightful, or at least made a little more sense, but it’s so much fun to watch that the viewer barely notices that they’ve been exposed to deep questions about what is real and the state of the universe.