I Sell the Dead English Movie
Cast & Crew
Running Time: 85 mins.
Country Of Origin: United States
starring: Larry Fessenden, Brenda Cooney, Dominic Monaghan, Ron Perlman, Angus Scrimm, Joel Garland, Daniel Manche, John Speredakos, Eileen Colgan, Heather Robb
director: Glenn McQuaid
Theatrical Release:8/7/2009
Reviews
19th century justice has finally caught up to grave robbers Arthur Blake andWillie Grimes. With the specter of the guillotine looming over him, young Blakeconfides in visiting clergyman Father Duffy, recounting fifteen years of adventurein the resurrection trade. His tale leads from humble beginnings as a young boystealing trinkets from corpses, to a partnership with seasoned ghoul WillieGrimes as they hunt creatures unwilling to accept their place in the ground. Thecolorful and peculiar history of Grimes and Blake is one filled with adventure,horror, and vicious rivalries that threaten to put all involved in the very gravesthey’re trying to pilfer.
Antic horror comedy "I Sell the Dead" nods to the '60s Hammer heyday of fog-swirling Victorian chillers, as well as that period's penchant for teaming genre favorites (Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone, Peter Lorre, etc.) in genial sendups. Fondly crafted, amusing if slight item has toured fests since last fall, selling rights in several territories. IFC will give the pic simultaneous U.S. theatrical and on-demand rollouts starting Aug. 7 in New York and Aug. 14 in L.A. (VOD release is Aug. 12), with partner Blockbuster handling rental/download distribution.
In addition to producing, contemporary horror helmer Larry Fessenden ("The Last Winter") steps before the camera here as rascally Willy Grimes, who apprentices Arthur (Dominic Monaghan) in the fine art of grave-robbing, their primary client being sinister Dr. Quint (Angus Scrimm, "Phantasm"). As if this illegal trade weren't trouble enough, the duo's exhumed corpses have an exasperating habit of coming back to hostile life. Stringing together several macabre episodes, framed by Arthur's pre-guillotine confession to blase Father Duffy ("Hellboy's" Ron Perlman), Glenn McQuaid's feature writing-directing debut doesn't build much narrative steam. Still, droll perfs, diverting f/x and handsome B-pic atmospherics ensure a good time for horror fans with a memory past last weekend's slasher remake.
Seems Blake began his grave-digging days in desperation as a youth, apprenticing with the older, meaner Grimes (this first flashback consists of portions of THE RESURRECTION APPRENTICE with new music and a few edits), stealing the dead from their deeply planted crates and selling them to a creepy, violin-playing doctor (PHANTASM’s Angus Scrimm, who’s fantastic). Their dubious association is a happy one for many years, until one night, they come across a freshly interred corpse with a garlic clove necklace and a stake protruding from her chest. In the hilarious ensuing sequence, the turn-of-the-century tomb raiders foolishly remove the wooden spike and the toothy stiff screams to life, clawing at their throats and trying to literally tear the duo apart before they put her back to bed for keeps. They soon discover that this incident was not an isolated one, and before you can say Burke and Hare, an entire market of macabre moneymaking opens up to them: revealing and stealing from the undead—an enterprise that will unfortunately prove to be their eventual undoing.
I can’t properly articulate how wonderful it is to see an ultra-low-budget modern horror film that aspires to be a richly detailed, Gothic period piece. I SELL THE DEAD belies its limited scratch by emphasizing atmosphere (shockingly, the film was lensed in New York…could have fooled me), costumes and quality performances (Fessenden is wonderful, physically channeling Jack Nicholson from THE SHINING while acting like Ron Moody from OLIVER!) over cheap, overzealous torture, nickel-and-dime sex and warmed-over TEXAS CHAINSAW plot contrivances. There’s a real wit, ingenuity and energy on display in I SELL THE DEAD, a love of the medium and a deep respect for the subgenre of British grave-thieving movies it so aptly spoofs; think THE DOCTOR AND THE DEVILS or THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS by way of the CARRY ON films.
If there are a few flaws here and there (Jeff Grace’s handsome score is perhaps a bit too busy, there are some spotty Irish and British accents amidst the American cast and an odd comic-book-panel visual device is seemingly forgotten halfway through), they’re more than forgivable and never derail any of the ghoulish good will. That said, the print screened at Toronto After Dark wasn’t the final cut and a few FX hadn’t yet been polished, so perfection might still be forthcoming.
If you pine for that delectable golden era of melodramatic, ghoulish, bodice-ripping big-screen terror, and wonder what it would be like if you crossed that unique Hammer aesthetic with the supernatural splatter-toon outrageousness of THE EVIL DEAD, then Sir/Madame, look no further. I SELL THE DEAD is the fright flick for you.
Antic horror comedy "I Sell the Dead" nods to the '60s Hammer heyday of fog-swirling Victorian chillers, as well as that period's penchant for teaming genre favorites (Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone, Peter Lorre, etc.) in genial sendups. Fondly crafted, amusing if slight item has toured fests since last fall, selling rights in several territories. IFC will give the pic simultaneous U.S. theatrical and on-demand rollouts starting Aug. 7 in New York and Aug. 14 in L.A. (VOD release is Aug. 12), with partner Blockbuster handling rental/download distribution.
In addition to producing, contemporary horror helmer Larry Fessenden ("The Last Winter") steps before the camera here as rascally Willy Grimes, who apprentices Arthur (Dominic Monaghan) in the fine art of grave-robbing, their primary client being sinister Dr. Quint (Angus Scrimm, "Phantasm"). As if this illegal trade weren't trouble enough, the duo's exhumed corpses have an exasperating habit of coming back to hostile life. Stringing together several macabre episodes, framed by Arthur's pre-guillotine confession to blase Father Duffy ("Hellboy's" Ron Perlman), Glenn McQuaid's feature writing-directing debut doesn't build much narrative steam. Still, droll perfs, diverting f/x and handsome B-pic atmospherics ensure a good time for horror fans with a memory past last weekend's slasher remake.
Seems Blake began his grave-digging days in desperation as a youth, apprenticing with the older, meaner Grimes (this first flashback consists of portions of THE RESURRECTION APPRENTICE with new music and a few edits), stealing the dead from their deeply planted crates and selling them to a creepy, violin-playing doctor (PHANTASM’s Angus Scrimm, who’s fantastic). Their dubious association is a happy one for many years, until one night, they come across a freshly interred corpse with a garlic clove necklace and a stake protruding from her chest. In the hilarious ensuing sequence, the turn-of-the-century tomb raiders foolishly remove the wooden spike and the toothy stiff screams to life, clawing at their throats and trying to literally tear the duo apart before they put her back to bed for keeps. They soon discover that this incident was not an isolated one, and before you can say Burke and Hare, an entire market of macabre moneymaking opens up to them: revealing and stealing from the undead—an enterprise that will unfortunately prove to be their eventual undoing.
I can’t properly articulate how wonderful it is to see an ultra-low-budget modern horror film that aspires to be a richly detailed, Gothic period piece. I SELL THE DEAD belies its limited scratch by emphasizing atmosphere (shockingly, the film was lensed in New York…could have fooled me), costumes and quality performances (Fessenden is wonderful, physically channeling Jack Nicholson from THE SHINING while acting like Ron Moody from OLIVER!) over cheap, overzealous torture, nickel-and-dime sex and warmed-over TEXAS CHAINSAW plot contrivances. There’s a real wit, ingenuity and energy on display in I SELL THE DEAD, a love of the medium and a deep respect for the subgenre of British grave-thieving movies it so aptly spoofs; think THE DOCTOR AND THE DEVILS or THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS by way of the CARRY ON films.
If there are a few flaws here and there (Jeff Grace’s handsome score is perhaps a bit too busy, there are some spotty Irish and British accents amidst the American cast and an odd comic-book-panel visual device is seemingly forgotten halfway through), they’re more than forgivable and never derail any of the ghoulish good will. That said, the print screened at Toronto After Dark wasn’t the final cut and a few FX hadn’t yet been polished, so perfection might still be forthcoming.
If you pine for that delectable golden era of melodramatic, ghoulish, bodice-ripping big-screen terror, and wonder what it would be like if you crossed that unique Hammer aesthetic with the supernatural splatter-toon outrageousness of THE EVIL DEAD, then Sir/Madame, look no further. I SELL THE DEAD is the fright flick for you.
The movie follows a couple of grave robbers in the 19th century named Arthur Blake and Willie Grimes. Justice has finally caught up with them and they are going to be punished for their crimes. Before the young Arthur Blake is about to get his head sliced off by the guillotine he is visited by a clergyman named father Duffy. It is in this interaction that Blake tells the story of his life which recounts his days as a young boy to stealing corpses, his partnership with Willie Grimes and how they ended up hunting the living dead. Yes they living dead like Vampires.
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