I have been trying to write this review for over two weeks now and it’s been proving quite difficult, for a number of reasons, I think. The first is that I didn’t really know what to expect from this movie. Second, the festival ended just when I was ramping up to have fun and, third, I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what it was about this movie that was making it difficult to write this. I Sell the Dead was probably the most anticipated movie of the festival (especially since there were rumors that Ron Perlman and Dominic Monaghan were going to show up) and, while it certainly wasn’t what I expected, it didn’t disappoint at all.
I Sell the Dead begins with the death of a main character. I promise that I’m not spoiling anything, it’s the very first thing you see. It’s significance doesn’t appear until the last few minutes of the movie, remaining all but forgotten until a fantastic gag reminds you. It segues into an interview of sorts between our main character, Arthur Blake (Monaghan), and the Preist (Ron Perlman). Arthur is mere hours away from being beheaded for a host of charges, including graverobbing and mutiliation of a corpse. You see, Arthur really IS a graverobber and as the plot develops we get to see the genesis of one of the ‘greats’ of graverobbing and how he got to have that place. Anything beyond this spoils the movie. I’m serious.
Told in an episodic format, you follow Arthur and his friend Willie Grimes (producer/actor Larry Fessenden) through their many adventures, the plot being haphazardly thrown at you in such a way that you don’t even know you’re watching the plot unfold until it’s right in your lap. The sets are beautiful and the talent is even better.
This is what bothered me about the movie the most, and what was the hardest to put my finger on: the movie feels unfinished. It doesn’t feel unfinished in terms of its presentation (production values are excellent), but it feels unfinished in terms of its script. This is not to say that it needed another draft, but what I mean instead is that writer/director Glenn McQuaid is so involved with these characters and has given them such a life of their own, that the characters wanted more. I’ve never said this about a movie before, but the characters in this movie weren’t written to be a ‘lead in’ to a franchise or deliberately underwritten to leave you wanting more. They were legitimately too big for this movie. This movie is completely solid and I loved it, but I couldn’t help but feel that, rather than the inevitable sequel, this would play considerably better (and reach a wider audience) as an HBO original production (or another cable network). While this is not for basic cable, you get the sense that this movie is only scratching the surface of the world these characters inhabit… and you want to know so much more.
Above: Larry and my husband at the bar(Seconds after this Larry’s beer was kicked over.
I bought him a new one… seemed like the right
thing to do)
Although Larry declined to answer the inevitable ‘budget’ question, he noted it was made for less than $5 millions and Glenn indicated that it was shot in a literally-fly-by-night format in which they scouted locations all around Manhattan, including a bar they went into after closing every night, dressed, shot and got out again before opening. It is my understanding that Larry makes it his business to support independent film, which is certainly to be applauded. Given the quality of the product on just this project alone, I must say that he’s doing an excellent job of it. Inclusive of the cast, the makers of this movie set out to make something very specific an achieved every bit of it.
Larry, Glenn, Brenda Cooney (the female lead), and classic horror actor Angus Scrimm (all of the Phantasm movies) came out to the closing night party at the Bovine and I got this pic with Larry. Seconds after this someone tripped over his beer and broke the bottle. It was worth it though. I find it refreshing when filmmakers can have as much fun with a movie as they do at the bar, which is probably why this team works well together. It’s my understanding that a sequel is coming – if for no other reason than I don’t believe that Larry and Glenn are done with these characters yet. I hope they can get the cast back together and I hope that they get the release they want. This movie deserves a larger audience and hope it gets one, but if the studios are being dodgy, try HBO.
