Between now and the closing film of the Toronto International Film Festival on September 16th, Killer Reviews will be highlighting some of the films that will have screenings at the prestigious event and giving you some insight into some of the more lesser known movies that being showcased in Canada.

Today, we take a look at Don Coscarelli’s John Dies at the End

You may not win Final Jeopardy if the answer is ‘Don Coscarelli’, but that doesn’t mean that fans of the horror genre don’t know his films. Coscarelli directed the classic horror film Phantasm in 1979, The Beastmaster in 1982 and Bubba Ho-Tep in 2002. He is back behind the camera again for the first time since Bubba Ho-Tep (with the exception of directions a Masters of Horror television entry) and bringing John Dies at the End to the TIFF as part of the Midnight Madness selection series.

From the Official TIFF Program Guide:

“After pitching us the silver spheres of head-drilling death in Phantasm and pitting a decrepit Elvis against a Texan mummy in Bubba Ho-Tep, veteran director Don Coscarelli is back with this hallucinatory, aggressively oddball and horror-tinged action comedy adapted from the cult novel by David Wong.

When we first meet Dave (Chase Williamson), he’s sitting in a booth at a Chinese restaurant recounting his incredible tale to doubtful journalist Arnie (Paul Giamatti). Dave tries to explain how and why his buddy John (Rob Mayes) came to consume a strange new drug called Soy Sauce, a goopy black narcotic that allows the user to access alternate dimensions and slip fluidly through time. When buzzing on the Sauce, John and Dave discover that the world is on the cusp of an inter-dimensional invasion, and it is up to them to stop it.

Any attempt to explain the plot of John Dies at the End would resemble the ramblings of a strung-out peyote-absinthe-martini addict. This film has more unexpected turns than a roller coaster and moves just as fast, as Coscarelli slides his characters in and out of time and throws ancient evils, trans-dimensional bugs, meat monsters and other phantasmagoric oddities onto the tracks. And that’s even before genre favourite Clancy Brown (star of JT Petty’s Hellbenders, which also plays Midnight Madness this year) turns up in a hilarious, scene-stealing role as Dr. Marconi, a Vegas psychic complete with a flashy stage show.

Combining the fantastical creatures and psycho-body-horror aesthetics of early Cronenberg and the surreal nightmare visions of David Lynch with wicked humour and frenetic action, this dark and twisted mind-bender will leave you with a big grin on your face — even if you never quite figure out whether John does, in fact, die at the end. Take a dose of the Sauce and get ready to drop into Coscarelli’s wild and woolly psychotropic world.”