Having read the original novel, I rushed to this movie with high expectations, and the end result is hit and miss for me. First off, there are several noticeable, if not substantial, plot changes, compared to the book, which may be a bummer if you are keen on the faithfulness of cinematic adaptation. Personally I was not particularly bothered, however, I did find the pace of this movie to be rather rushed, which is understandable, considering the run time is merely 100 minutes or so. I think the genius of the original book definitely warrants the length of a TV-series to do it justice on the big screen, as the book is relatively long, to say the least.Having said that, I have to commend the filmmakers for accurately recapturing the nuances of the flavor of the novel, which was why so many people gravitated towards John Dies at the End in the first place. The choices of which parts to keep and which parts to ditch were overall well thought out; The humors were there, with dick jokes galore in the book deliberately toned down a notch to achieve a perfect balance; the gore effects were top notch enough to get your blood pumping; and the acting is actually quite decent, especially Molly, or as in this movie, Bark Lee, who gave a very believable performance. In a nutshell, the movie version of John Dies at the End is guaranteed to be a joy ride, as long as you look past the faithfulness issues.

A-Z Horror Movie of the Day..."John Dies at the End" (R - 2012 - US)Sub-Genre: Gore/ComedyMy Score: 6.9Cast=7 Acting=7 Plot=5 Ending=9 Story=7 Scare=4 Jump=7 F/X=6 Gore=9 Funny=8 A new street drug that sends its users across time and dimensions has one drawback: some people return as no longer human. Can two college dropouts save humankind from this silent, otherworldly invasion? "Do you ever wonder why you sometimes see a single shoe lying alongside the road?" There are a lot of elements in this movie...I could easily call this a Sci-Fi movie, too. It's extremely busy, but I liked this quite a bit!! I could right a book about this movie and I wouldn't cover everything that's in it. I'm just going to recommend you give it a look, but you might watch it again in the next 24 hours.

Watched this film last night on Netflix. I knew nothing about it - but thought it had a good name and looked a bit unusual. The name is nothing compared to how crazy the film is. Totally surreal but not so much that you can't follow what's going on, and really funny too. All the parts are brilliantly acted, well directed, so glad I picked it to watch. Reminded me a bit of evil dead with a touch of Cronenberg. The scene with the Moustache is worth watching the film for all by itself. It is a film that definitely doesn't take itself too seriously (it could almost be a fantasy horror sci-fi spoof) but is still seriously good

Dave (Chase Williamson, "The Guest") and the John of the title (Rob Mayes, "Enough Said") are two doofus college dropouts who inadvertently discover a sinister plot afoot. It involves getting humans addicted to a new drug dubbed Soy Sauce. This drug can give people out of body experiences like no other, and after people use it they're no longer the same.Veteran genre director Don Coscarelli (the "Phantasm" series, "Bubba Ho-Tep") has more success with the overall presentation than the story, which at its core is really rather conventional. But there's so many interesting and completely off the wall details that "John Dies at the End" is still pretty entertaining. Not that it completely works; sometimes it gets tiresome. But there are good lines, tons of elaborate visual and creature effects, and generally amusing performances.Williamson does a decent job of basically *reacting* to a nonstop assortment of insanity, while some of the other actors have more of an opportunity to just let it rip. There is a very funny cameo by a certain horror series star; Glynn Turman of "Cooley High", "J.D.'s Revenge", and "Gremlins" has one of his more substantial film roles in a while as a weary detective, and Daniel Roebuck ("River's Edge", Rob Zombie's "Halloween" films) is hammy as a character named Largeman. Paul Giamatti, who also takes an executive producer credit, is fun as the reporter to whom Dave tells his story. Clancy Brown ("Highlander", "The Shawshank Redemption") likewise amuses in one of his more off the wall roles. And Doug Jones ("Hellboy", "Pan's Labyrinth") is sufficiently creepy in his brief time on screen.The wacky, surreal hijinks were adapted by Coscarelli, based on a story by "David Wong" (a pseudonym for Jason Pargin).Seven out of 10.