A wasted opportunity. I Sell the Dead follows Arthur Blake who is about to be executed by guillotine for the crime of grave robbing. But before he faces the blade, he agrees to confess to Father Duffy in the hope that the priest might be merciful enough to spare his life. This is one of the best examples of what it means to "Run out of gas too early", the movie kicks off pretty strong by setting up the characters, and the period in which it takes place, giving you a clear-cut picture of what their motivations are to commit such acts. It not only explores the main theme of the story pretty quickly but also surpasses your expectations of what you can expect from the story, but this is also the point where all the issues start to appear. When you have a movie that is not afraid to be ridiculous, over-the-top and dares to fit itself into multiple sub-genres, you better keep that ball rolling by keeping the intensity up with every scene. Because the moment your main characters start to feel comfortable in any situation your audience will lose interest in whatever is happening on screen, and this is exactly what happens here. There are only two ways to execute a movie like this:-1. You keep building the intensity by keeping your main characters on edge till the very last moment, like what Evil Dead movies do, or2. You set up your story for a mega finale like every good horror movie, which has a great payoff in the end. But here after the halfway mark movie goes on autopilot mode and when it ends, all I had to say was "Oh okay".
Im Irland des 18. Jahrhunderts nutzt der Grabräuber Arthur Blake die letzten Stunden vor seiner Hinrichtung, um dem Priester Francis Duffy von seinem außergewöhnlichen Leben zu erzählen. Dabei offenbart sich, dass Blake und sein Partner Willie Grimes keineswegs gewöhnliche Grabräuber waren, denn nicht alle Leichen blieben so tot, wie sie es eigentlich sollten.Die Horrorkomödie über zwei Grabräuber, die zufällig ein neues, lukratives Geschäftsfeld entdecken, indem sie beginnen, übernatürliche Wesen auszugraben und zu verkaufen, ist trotz des niedrigen Production Values überraschend unterhaltsam. Besonders die Chemie zwischen den Hauptdarstellern Dominic Monaghan und Larry Fessenden trägt maßgeblich dazu bei. Wer über teils extrem wackelige Kameraeinstellungen, ein miserables Farbschema und Color-Grading sowie den übermäßigen Einsatz von Nebelmaschinen hinwegsehen kann, wird mit wunderbar leichtem und kurzweiligem Entertainment belohnt. Trotzdem überrascht es mich nicht, dass Glenn McQuaid seit 2012 nicht mehr Regie geführt hat.—————————————————In 18th century Ireland, grave robber Arthur Blake spends the final hours before his execution telling Father Francis Duffy the story of his extraordinary life. It soon becomes clear that Blake and his partner Willie Grimes were far from ordinary grave robbers, as not all corpses stayed as dead as they should have.The horror-comedy about two grave robbers who stumble upon a lucrative new business by digging up and selling supernatural beings is surprisingly entertaining despite its low production value. The chemistry between the two leads, Dominic Monaghan and Larry Fessenden, is largely responsible for this. If you can overlook the shaky camera work, terrible color scheme and grading, and the overuse of fog machines, you’re in for some wonderfully light and breezy entertainment. Still, I’m not surprised that Glenn McQuaid hasn’t directed a film since 2012.
