Director: Glenn McQuaid
Writer: Glenn McQuaid
Producers: Peter Phok, Larry Fessenden
Starring: Dominic Monaghan, Ron Perlman, Larry Fessenden, Angus Scrimm, John Speredakos, Eileen Colgan, Brenda Cooney
MPAA Rating: NR
Running time: 90 min.
Country of Origin: USA
Toronto After Dark Film Festival

Vampires, flesh-eating zombies, grave robbers, pirates and aliens; just some of the ingredients required for a successful closing gala film at a genre/horror film festival. Now while that might seem like a tall order, one should never underestimate the clever programmers at Toronto After Dark, because these things are exactly what I Sell the Dead has up its proverbial sleeve. Well, that and a very recognizable and fun cast.

Cut into basically three acts, we follow the misadventures of two semi-bumbling grave robbers; from the conception of the duo to their final, deadly escapade. Each of the three adventures has a different element of the super natural and/or macabre. None of them are particularly scary, though they are very much in the spirit of Halloween in their setting and atmosphere. Mostly, the escapades are of the humorous sort bordering on slap-stick in some cases. Since there really is a fairly distinct beginning and end to each part of the story, there really isn’t much of an overall plot or storyline to relate to you, the reader.

The film is structured in such a way that we basically already know how things are going to turn out. The story is relayed to us by way of one of the main characters as he explains his cirumstances to a preacher as he awaits execution by guillotine for various crimes. This way of going about telling a story almost works, but not quite. The idea of listening to tales of the macabre by candlelight, over a bottle of whiskey, sounds pretty good in theory, but because we already know how things are going to end up, it’s hard to care too much about anything.

This style of story telling has been used to much greater effect in many films, Spike Lee’s Inside Man comes to mind. While I admit it’s not fair to compare a low budget, genre film to the great Spike Lee (and that is not my intent), I do think the lack of any sort of standing antagonist throughout the picture leaves us with no sense of urgency about what is to happen. The film’s opening shot is one in which the other half of our “heroic duo” has his head removed by guillotine (thus instilling in us a fear for what is in store for our story teller). Had this little sequence been shown in real time or within a parallel time-line to the adventure stories, we might be forced to care a little bit more about what is happening throughout the rest of the picture.

The cast is capable enough. Fans of the genre will be pleased to see Larry Fesenden as a main character and also a nice cameo role from the aging Angus Grimm (Phantasm). Ron Perlman in the interrogator role works pretty well (as Perlman usually does), but unfortunately we don’t see much of him as he’s not part of any of the adventure stories. So Dominic Monaghan is left to do much of the heavy lifting. And I can say quite confidently that he is nice fit for this role. He’s got wit and charm, seems to know exactly what the story calls for and he fits the part well. So certainly no complaints about the cast or the performances.

The production value could stand a bit of polishing however. Very little, if any, of the film is shot on location. It’s all quite obvious that it’s on a sound stage or backlot. The lighting keeps everything in the Halloween mood, but it can be difficult to make out certain things on screen. A minor detail to be sure, but one that is noticeable and does take a bit away from the experience.

Having said all of that, there are good things that come of I Sell the Dead. While light hearted with not much action or thrills, there is a lot of fun being had with the situations and dialogue. Laughs are plentiful and the stories, while not particularly involving, do engage some new ideas and bring a lot of fun into play. The characters themselves are great and they seemed to have loads of chemistry.

Also, no good movie about zombies and vampires, etc is complete without realistic looking ghouls. Here, the creatures look great. Kudos to the make-up department for putting together some fantastic looking living dead that are super fun to look at. The director seems to realize this and has no qualms about letting the camera linger a bit on his undead antagonists. Twas quite a treat and a nice departure from the jump scare tactics in which we only ever see a quick glimpse of the creature before it disappears forever.

The question of a sequel was posed to the director following my screening and both he and the cast seemed enthused by the idea and even admitted to having a couple of stories sort of halfway prepared. I have to admit that while I wasn’t overly engaged with this film, I do like the characters enough to see them again on more escapades. I wouldn’t even mind seeing them with the same type of story structure as long as it could be worked out a little bit better to make things a tad more cohesive.

So lots to complain about here, but also enough good things to keep me involved at least somewhat. And as I mentioned, the fact that I would get out to see a sequel says alot about a film, it’s director and it’s cast. Maybe not the best choice for a closing night film at a festival, but there seemed to be just enough of a little bit of everything to keep the audience cheering and genuinely pleased and entertained. Again, that says alot.

Links:
IMDb profile
Official Site
Flixster Profile for I Sell the Dead