I Sell the Dead

Written by Happywax on April 29 2011
Rating   7 out of 10
Director  -  Glenn McQuaid

Cast
Dominic Monaghan -   Arthur Blake
Ron Perlman           -   Father Duffy
Larry Fessenden     -   Willie Grimes
Angus Scrimm        - Dr. Vernon Quint

                                                                                     

Welcome back all you Fright Freaks, Happys got a diamond in the ruff for ya with this little number.

 When people harp on about how "they don't make 'em like they used to" then just point them towards this fantastically entertaining, and quaint-looking, comedy horror from writer-director Glenn McQuaid.

It's a tale of graverobbers (played by Dominic Monaghan and Larry Fessenden) who end up digging up more than just silent, immobile corpses. After the initial shock of this they soon realise that they can actually turn the situation to their advantage. And that's just what they try to do. Mind you, it seems as if things may not have worked out quite as they planned as poor young Arthur (Monaghan) is actually relating his tale to a priest (Ron Perlman) before being taken to the gallows.

Looking at the detail of his filmography, McQuaid seems to have taken the core of his first, short movie and expanded it to this feature effort, which is no bad thing. Fessenden returns and does well, Monaghan is one of those guys who can actually still get you to like him while he goes about the nefarious business of stealing from the dead and with other genre favourites such as Perlman and Angus Scrimm on the scene this film is a lot of fun for genre fans.

It also benefits from a unique and favourable design and look, at times moving from E.C. Comic-style panels into live action (a la Creepshow) and always somehow feeling quite authentic in it's Hammer Horror feel. Maybe everything is just covered over with so much dry ice but that's beside the point. Whatever was done to capture everything on film, it works. It works well.

It may not have any actual scares but this film does have a great vein of black humour and definitely soaks every minute of it's runtime in macabre material that should please all of those who have the patience for horror that's a little bit more sedate and feels like it definitely could have been made back in the days of Hammer. I highly recomend this movie as a must watch saterday afternoon movie, kinda like back in the days of Super Host, If your as old as me and the Axemaster you know who I'm talking about, anyways have fun with this one , and make sure you check out the trailer below.