I Sell the Dead [Blu-ray]

Great Horror/Comedy Hybrid
This movie has been getting good press in mags like "Fangoria" and "Rue Morgue." It can be rented at Blockbuster as one of their exclusives and is scheduled for a street release at the end of March. It is a low budget project, but one that's produced with a lot of class, wit, energy and a respect for the genre.

It involves a couple of low-life, but likable Burke and Hare-type grave robbers named Grimes and Blake, and their misadventures supplying fresh corpses for a local doctor/mortician (Angus Scrimm). They unearth the usual rotten and not-so-rotten corpses, vampires, zombies and even an extraterrestrial (!), but their most dangerous adventure comes in the form of a sick, violent family of grave robbers who don't appreciate the competition: The House of Murphy. The daughter, who was burned beyond recognition, wears a mask identical to the burned daughter in the classic French film "Les Yeux sans Visage" ("Eyes Without a Face")-great touch! The son grinds up his victims'...

A pleasant surprise
I noticed this at my local Blockbuster. Brought it home without any real expectations, and was really very pleasantly surprised.
The movie revolves around Arthur Blake, a graverobber who is about to be executed, and Ron Perlman, the monk who is interviewing Blake before his execution. Perlman wants to know how Blake got started in graverobbing, what his career was like, and what happened to Blake's worst rival. Blakes' tale involves the dead, vampires, zombies, and aliens. It is somewhat bloody, but laced with humor. Worth watching!

This movie is right up my alley, but...
Great cast, great idea and stylish.... but it was missing something. It was neat to look at, but I never really connected to it.

There were a whole lot of good ideas, but not enough was done with them. The movie would have been better if it were longer to expand on the ideas or more focused. Most of Arthur's apprenticeship could have been cut for instance.

The horror wasn't particularly scary and the humor snicker worthy at best. Combined with the slow pacing, it's just too many strikes against the movie. It's a shame, because this movie has the cast and ingredients to be a genuine cult classic.

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