PFF & Cinefest09- Day 7

As per PFF & Cinefest09- Day 2 Post, learning Visual Basic is ruining my life! Normally during the festival I like to average at least two films a day, but with my semester drawing to a close, I unfortunately have to balance my movie viewing and reviewing with coding and pulling out of hair!

So my one movie pick for Day 7 was I Sell the Dead (USA), highly recommended by Danger After Dark festival curator, Lewis Tice.

This story of 18th Century grave robbers features Dominic Monahan (Lost, Lord of the Rings) always a perfect choice for anything otherworldly. I’ve always imagined grave robbing had to do with stealing items off of the bodies, not the bodies. But I guess I’m thinking more about King Tut type grave robbing and that would be less bungling idiots and more Indiana Jones.
The story begins with Monahan’s character, Arthur, and his unlikely mentor, Willie (Larry Fessenden) having been caught for their crimes and framed for murder. A priest comes to visit Arthur before his execution and Arthur is all too willing to talk of his exploits in bone chilling detail.

I feel the film had the anticipated amount of humor and monsters and fog, still I wasn’t completely engaged. (Could it be I was still programming in my head? perhaps) but I think the plot needed a bit more of an arc.

Spoiler alert! I must say there is a hilarious scene of the two carrying a tiny casket you assume contains a child’s remains, upon dropping it, out pops a frozen alien. In comes rival graver robbers, The House of Murphy, and to all their surprise up goes the alien back into the light.

[Director/Screenwriter: Glenn McQuaid]

Rating: Pretty Middle Toe