I Sell The Dead Review

I found it pretty spectacular that this year we were treated to such a wide array of films at Toronto After Dark. The closing night film is equally as important as the opening night film, perhaps more so. The closing night film always seems to wrap the experience of the film festival up, and this year was no exception. “I Sell the Dead” is a Period Piece / Horror Film / Buddy Movie all wrapped up. Dominic Monaghan and Larry Fessenden play the buddies-in-question, digging up the graves of selected individuals.

The two are in direct competition with a vicious, and more successful, family of gravediggers known as The House of Murphy. Willie (Fessenden) being the elder of the two admonishes the younger Arthur (Monaghan) for daring to deny the House of Murphy the spoils of their efforts and soon the two are forced to confront the House of Murphy with disastrous results. The twist here, is that the gravediggers dig up bodies that, in some cases, choose not to stay dead, and so decide to “specialise” in the unusual corpse market.

The entire film is told as a tale being told by Arthur to an old priest, played by Ron Perlman. The movie opens with the beheading of the venomous Willie and soon after we are introduced to Arthur, awaiting his own execution. The two had been set up for murder and convicted.

I was pretty sure of the direction the movie would take about twenty minutes in to the film, but that certainly didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the film. It is almost unfair to mention, but due to the poor sound of the theater, and the distance we were forced to sit from the screen, I found myself very detached from the film. I enjoyed the characters but essentially felt nothing for them. “I Sell The Dead” is a very unique take on the undead, and in a Q&A after the film, Writer/Director Glenn Quaid mention all the different Willie and Arthur stories he wanted to tell. It would be a tont of fun to see more adventures from this unusual pair.

My one regret with the film is that the present-day (at least as far as the film is concerned) sequences seemed to run on for too long. I understand the idea of advancing the plot and all, but I just think they could have spent a little less time doing so and getting right down to the meat of the matter. When it did get rolling though I was thoroughly enjoying this unique fable.

The way the story runs is both dark and gloomy, but also light and comedic. The light moments are such delightfully twisted moments that one can’t help laughing at the unusual circumstances our “heroes” are forced to endure. I am reminded of “Evil Dead II” as far as relating the film to something already established, but without the extreme ham of “Groovy!” et al. The humour is, so to speak, realistic and creates a sense of empathy for the protagonists.

If anything, “I Sell The Dead” almost has the feel of one of the Brothers’ Grimm fairy tales but in a much more sinister atmosphere.