'I Sell the Dead' review

I was fortunate enough to see the North American premiere of 'I Sell the Dead', last night (Oct 24) at the Bloor Cinema in Toronto, as part of the 'Toronto After Dark' horror film fest, and wanted to share a brief review here. (mostly x-posted from my own LJ)

First: No, Dom did not personally attend. However, several others connected with the film were there - Larry Fessenden, Angus Scrimm, Brenda Cooney and writer/director Glenn McQuaid.

Having provided that disclaimer: OMG YOU GUYS, SO MUCH FUN.

I can't give too in-depth a review without becoming spoilery, but this was a thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyable film. Although it's billed as a horror-comedy, it's heavy on the comedy and non-horror-fans can rest assured that its horror qualities are in the 1950s Hammer Horror vein... there was really nothing "scary" about the film and nothing that should upset the squeamish.

The movie unfolds as a series of vignettes, as Arthur (Dom's character) tells his life story in a gallows confession, so we see his character progress in graverobbing from child apprentice to a partner in crime to Willie (Larry Fessenden); meanwhile their adventures get more complicated as they progress from digging up the dead to digging up the... well, let's just say 'undead'. Hijinks ensue. Dom and Larry have great onscreen chemistry - in addition to amusing dialogue, there's also a lot of brilliant physical comedy going on.

It's certainly a B-movie and not high-budget, but I thought the production quality was great, and it's truly astounding what a good job they did in creating period sets and atmosphere in a movie filmed entirely in New York.

From a Dom-fan perspective: first, it was just wonderful to see so much of him! (no, I don't mean nudity, although - arms!! yum.) With the exception of the couple of vignettes where they have younger actors playing Arthur as a child and teen, Dom is in virtually every scene. And as a nice bonus, since we see Arthur at various points in his adult life, we see Dom in various looks in terms of hairstyle, beard, etc. There are a few scenes where he looks young enough to be a dead ringer for his days as Geoffrey Shawcross! But it's not just a matter of lots of pretty to look at; he really gets to do a lot onscreen and it seems like he really made the most of it.

It's a good role, and a good movie, too. The storyline is coherent (unlike some past films - The Purifiers, I'm looking at you), and shawcrossedlove and I were laughing all the way through. And most of the crowd - a sellout crowd of about 800 people, the vast majority of whom were clearly there as 'horror film fest goers' rather than 'Dom fans' - seemed to agree with us, so it's fair to say the movie is enjoyable whether you're biased by fandom or not.


There was a brief Q&A after the movie. They were asked about the future for the movie as far as distribution goes, but all they could say at this point is that they're doing the festival circuit and hoping to sell it - but there were also intriguing hints of a possible sequel!


In closing: Two thumbs up. See it if you get the chance.