John Dies at the End Director Don Coscarelli Is Sorry for Everything That's About to Happen

Filmmaker Don Coscarelli has made some great ones -- Phantasm! Bubba Ho-Tep! The freaking Beastmaster! And now he's back with the genre-defying John Dies at the End, a head-trip horror-comedy-sci-fi-fantasy something or other based on the book of the same name. (The marketing campaign for the film tells us that the main characters are sorry for everything that's about to happen… though if you see the film, you'll probably say they shouldn't be!)

John features Paul Giamatti, who also executive-produces, familiar players like Clancy Brown, Angus Scrimm and Doug Jones, and fresh faces Chase Williamson and Rob Mayes in an out-there tale about "soy sauce," a mind-altering drug that can lead to hallucinations, enhanced perceptions, skinhead zombies, meat-locker monsters, trans-dimensional trips and… death. Just ask John! But really, you've pretty much just got to see the movie to understand it (or understand it better, at least).

I met up with Coscarelli in New York last week to chat about John Dies at the End, as well as the long hoped for Bubba Ho-Tep sequel Bubba Nosferatu, the legacy of the '80s classic The Beastmaster, and much more. Watch the full interview above (an index of conversation topics can be found below) -- and don't forget to check out John Dies at the End on Video On Demand now and in theaters on Jan. 25. (Bring some soy sauce with you…)

• 0.01: The appeal of the book ("Is it the talking dog? Is it the monster made out of freezer meats? Is it the drug that chooses you?")
• 0.40: Working on an indie budget with such big sci-fi, horror and fantasy concepts
• 2.20: Using old-school visual effects in conjunction with CGI
• 3.40: Creating the "meat monster"
• 5.40: Making a head-trip movie, and how faithful it is to the book
• 6.20: The idea of John as a midnight movie, and what the ultimate drug movie was for Coscarelli when he was young
• 7.00: The possibility of continuing John Dies at the End with sequels or as a series
• 8.20: The status of Bubba Nosferatu, how the idea of the sequel first came about, and how Elvis' manager Colonel Tom Parker will figure into it
• 11.10: The legacy of Coscarelli's early cult classic, The Beastmaster, and how the final cut of the film was taken away from him ("my bastard step-child!")
• 13.40: What's next for the director, and the difficulties of financing independent films
• 14.40: On being pigeonholed as a "horror director"

And check out the trailer for John Dies at the End below:

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Source : ign[dot]com