I Sell the Dead (2008)

The Plot: In this winner of the Slamdance Film Festival Best Cinematography Award, an 18th-century grave robber facing the guillotine confesses his sins to a priest, revealing a life filled with supernatural high jinks. Directed by Glenn McQuaid, the macabre comedy stars Dominic Monaghan as the doomed digger and Ron Perlman as the cleric, and the supporting cast includes Larry Fessenden as the robber’s ghoulish cohort.

The music was very fitting to this type of flim. The opening song kinda reminded me of the opening music of ‘The Re-Animator’, It set a great mood to start the film off with. There was some other Irish drinking song used in the bar scene that made me want to drink a pint or ten. Other then that, some background music here and there set up the scenes well.

The cinematography was fun to watch, mostly due to a couple of nice tricks with the camera that I haven’t seen done much in other movies. The film quality looked a bit grainy, I’m not sure if this was intentionally done, but it really added to the overall feel of the movie. A lot of dissolves were used throughout the picture to keep the story flowing along.

The acting was excellent. Dominic Monaghan portrayed the witty grave robbing bastard with seemingly little effort while Ron Perlman did the sarcastic, gallows humored holy man justice. The chemistry between the two of them conversing was interesting enough to hold your attention. Larry Fessenden had a filthy look with an accent to match. As some of the accents spoken by the characters are so authentically thick, you need to pay close attention or you’ll miss out.

The effects impressed me with quality sets, costumes, and top notch makeup. I could have done without the CGI’d throwing knife in one scene. It wasn’t too bad but it did take away just a little something from a great movie. There was another CGI scene that was good…but the shots were so prolonged that it showed too many flaws. All the undead looked awesome…really dusty old and crusty corpse’s that were a great treat to watch on film.

Overall: I did enjoy watching this movie. It was like a Hammer film with some traces of ‘Evil Dead 2’ mixed into it. The slap stick humor made for some good chuckles at times. At other times, the dialog did start going flat, but was saved by a much needed scene change. If you like a little humor with your horror, this would be a good fit…you sick wanka.

3 ½ Out of 5 Crom’s