If you haven’t heard of JOHN DIES AT THE END, trust me, pretty soon you will. The novel started as a web-based thing published in monthly instalments. The instalments were collected into a full book some time last year and the book by David Wong has been steadily building momentum and gaining fans through word of mouth.

The film adaptation is directed by Don Coscarelli; the low budget genius behind the PHANTASM series and BUBBA HO-TEP. The trailer has now appeared online…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my9Pr-W92SM

JOHN DIES AT THE END follows slackers David (Chase Williamson) and John (Rob Mayes) who spend their days working menial jobs and getting wasted. One night at a party they are introduced to some new drug known as ‘soy sauce’ and after ingesting some they find they can see a world just outside of normal perception and the horrors that lie in the next dimension. They’re also able to communicate with the dead and drift across time and space whilst under the influence. The drug enables them to learn of an impending invasion by some nasty beasts from beyond. The story is told in flashback by David to reporter Arnie (Paul Giamatti). The film also stars genre vets Clancy Brown and Doug Jones.

The novel is one of the strangest most hilarious reads I’ve had in some time. All the while I was reading it I couldn’t figure out quite how they were going to do a movie. It plays out like some kind of Kevin Smith meets David Cronenberg mash up and is anything but a linear story. Even the descriptions of the creatures in the novel are quite elaborate and unlike anything seen before. From watching the trailer it looks like Coscarelli has nailed the anarchic spirit of the book better than I thought he would.

We all get to see the finished result sometime in 2012.

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