The line between horror and comedy remains wafer thin, but that doesn’t stop any number of filmmakers from trying to make us snort through the scares.
“I Sell the Dead,” a new IFC on Demand feature available now, nails the intricate formula from the opening sequence.
The film, set in the 1800s and told with a tightwad budget, still feels as emaciated as a skeleton despite the spirited performances across the board.
“Lost” star Dominic Monaghan is Arthur, a grave robber about to be beheaded for murder.
Sure, he’s picked a few tombs clean in his day, but he swears he’s no killer. Father Murphy (Ron Perlman, the horror genre’s best friend) lets Arthur tell his story in the hours before his execution.
What follows is the tale, told in flashback, of how Arthur befriended a grubby tomb raider named Willie (Larry Fessenden) in the first place. The duo made ends meet by stealing fresh corpses and selling them to amoral doctors and other fiendish types.
Their line of work becomes complicated when a rivalry between a fellow grave robber threatens their meal ticket.
“I Sell the Dead” smacks of a movie that was an utter blast to shoot. Everyone gets to talk in a “shine your shoes, gov’nor” accent, and no gesture gets by without being tested for gross exaggeration. Yet it mostly all works, thanks to writer/director Glenn McQuaid’s knack for staying on message.
McQuaid’s tale gets a jolt from a bouncy soundtrack, and occasionally the action dissolves into a graphic novel still not unlike the “Creepshow” features.
Perlman is having the most fun here, slicking his fingers as he turns the pages of his little notepad and bearing down on Arthur as the young man shares his creepy story.
The body snatching rivalry arrives too late in the movie to have much impact, though, and for all the madcap moments the story never gains enough traction to justify the self-satisfaction oozing from the production.
And you’ll have to be a horror novice not to see the end coming.
“I Sell the Dead” feels like a raucous episode from a small screen horror anthology, which makes it a nice fit for IFCs On Demand service.
(Photo: “How much will I fetch on the open market?” A grumpy corpse co-stars in “I Sell the Dead”/IFC Films)
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