Hulu thankfully gave me a second chance to watch this incredibly well-done Horror movie written by a former Cracked writer. I knew it was going to be good because Paul Giamatti was an executive producer and probably through him the director scored the very talented Clancy Brown and Doug Jones. Now some people have crapped on John due to the special effects being cheap looking. I don’t really care. A great story, flawless execution and good acting always override effects. The gold standard? Star Trek. Sure, Paramount “fixed” all the starship sequences but re-using shots of Enterprise didn’t matter when else rocked. So John is this good company.
It’s hard to remember what the heck this was even about yet I enjoyed John immensely. The movie begins with John’s friend Dave talking to a journalist about this crazy new drug hitting the streets and how the duo discovered its horrifying side effects on its users. Then it becomes a very weird story inspired by Lovecraft, minus the racism, with help from Chris Carter and Vince Gilligan. The dreadful Ghostbusters sequel should try something so daring instead of flogging the dead horse we all know they’ll do since the studio still thinks Bill Murray is relatable and funny to Zoomers.
Even if you’re casual fan of Horror, I can’t recommend John Dies at the End enough. I was sold immediately when I knew the director also made Bubba Ho-Tep. These two movies, alongside Mandy and Beyond the Black Rainbow are the flicks pushing Horror into new directions after decades of Gorenography and weak M Night Shama-lama-ding-dong plot twists we saw coming a kilometer away.