Death and Cremation (2010) User Reviews

Bullying and Cremation

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 19 July 2011]

In Smith County, the lonely owner of the Stanley Crematory is a deranged psychopath that kills bullies and cremates their bodies. The also lonely outcast teenager Jarod Leary (Jeremy Sumpter) misses his father Robert Leary and lives with his mother Martha Leary (Debbon Ayer) in a trailer. He is daily bullied at the Banyon High School by David Valentine (Blake Hood) and his gang.

When the brother-in-law of Bill Weaver (Daniel Baldwin) dies of AIDS, he goes to the funeral home with his wife Becky (Staci Keanan) and their daughter Lindsey (Kate Maher) to research the costs, but Stan (Brad Dourif) does not give much attention to the family. Lindsey curses him and then she plays a prank on Jarod at school. Sooner Stan kidnaps and cremates Lindsey and Detective Matt Fairchild (Scott Elrod) from the Police Department is assigned to investigate the case of missing person. Meanwhile, Jarod asks for a job to Stan and they get close to each other.

When Jarod gets beaten up by David, Stan decides to protect Jarod and abducts David and cremates him. Jarod learns Stan's secret and decides to get rid off the arrogant lawyer Rick Waters (Sam Ingraffia) that is dating his mother. But the neophyte Jarod panics and commits mistakes and Stan decides to fix the problem of his protégé.

"Death and Cremation" is a slash-movie about bullying and cremation that is not as bad as the IMDb User Rating indicates. The story is flawed; the one dimension characters are poorly developed with the exception of Jared. The motives of Stan has become a psychopath should be better explained. However, this genre usually is more interested in the deaths than in well-developed characters. In the end, I liked this underrated film. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Crematório" ("The Crematory")

Starring Brad Dourif...I"m in!

[mattressman_pdl · 7/10 · 31 May 2012]

Death and Cremation is the story of a embittered teenage outcast who finds an unlikely friend in the owner and operator of Stanley Cremations. Stanley, it would seem, likes to heat up his oven to rid the town of bullies.

The movie, made for cable, is quite well made. As with any movie you'll be asked to excuse a few logic gaps and enjoy the ride. It isn't a new thing for a movie to ask you to sympathize with a killer but this one, at least from this reviewer's point of view, does well in that respect.

Brad Dourif, a veteran character actor with an impressive resume, is given the starring role and hits it out of the park! Dourif has never been insincere in his performances and this is no exception. The young actor playing his protégé was quite good, as well.

Try to catch this one! If you're a purist, however, the DVD is pan and scan.

Started off good

[coflorida · 7/10 · 3 July 2020]

Then seem to be rushed from middle to end.

I still give it 7/10 for Brad Dourif....

Great concept ruined by lethargic direction and poorly developed story

[jet66 · 21 October 2011]

Sullen Emo boy meets odd-ball father figure and team up for righteous, bloody justice. Could have been a great movie, right? Or at least a very creepy character study? Unfortunately, the glacial pacing and undeveloped story lines leave a great cast with the task of making a movie out of thin gruel. While there is very little in the dialogue to justify the friendship that develops between the two leads, the actors pull it off. It's a shame that such talent is wasted on mood moments, rather than extra-judicial villainy. This pair could have been a trailer park Batman and Robin; or a twisted Daniel Larusso and Mr. Miyagi; or even a homo-erotic and homicidal Harold and Maude. Worse, the ending is the sort of thing that screams "we ran out of money - that's a wrap."

Lots of urns but zero burns .....

[merklekranz · 5/10 · 6 July 2013]

In a movie titled "Death and Cremation", you might rightfully expect to see quite a few roaring fires. Alas, this low budget attempt at horror has barely a flicker. A couple puffs of smoke is about all you get. You also get a story that is woefully underdeveloped. Nothing is explained beyond the obviously deranged funeral director (Brad Dourif), seeking to barbecue anyone who has wronged him. Dourif could play this part in his sleep. Unfortunately the rest of the cast is not quite so polished. Another weakness is the constant closeups, which become nothing more than a damn annoyance. Other than Dourif's performance, the film is completely forgettable. - MERK

I DON'T OFFER IT

[nogodnomasters · 7/10 · 30 November 2018]

Stanley (Brad Dourif) likes Italian opera, does crossword puzzles, has bad skin, and runs the neighborhood crematorium. People who insult Stan take a tour of the oven. Jarod (Jeremy Sumpter and not the Subway guy) is odd and is bullied at school. He goes to work for Stanley and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's next.

Brad Dourif played a great Stanley, the supporting cast was fair. They seemed to have wanted this to be dark comedy, but it didn't quite make it. The film needed one to two light kill scenes as well as a scene of Stanley putting the bodies into the oven, playing his opera music. The potential was there.

Guide: F-bomb. Sex and nudity.

Fishing With Stan!!!!!!

[wandernn1-81-683274 · 3/10 · 5 June 2020]

Note to all smart ass teenagers everywhere!!! Best be careful who you mouth off to, some of us don't play!!!! Haha....

Over halfway through this one the jury is still out. Enjoying Dourif as usual he's great in everything he's in.

-1 Star for when the kid turns stupid and goes out and does his own thing

Story went south at this point.

Okay the end.....lotta questions left unanswered.

-1 Star really the movie left a lot unanswered and the story felt incomplete.

Great to see Dourif in anything however but even he couldn't save this one.

3/10

Underrated little movie deserves a higher score

[spotlightne · 8/10 · 16 October 2011]

Brad Dourif plays Stan, an unkempt, spotty-faced 59 year old loner with a bizarre pastime. He kills people he doesn't like. Just like that and doesn't think any more about it.

Someone says something to him and he doesn't like what they've said, it's over their head with a baseball bat, then straight with the body in the furnace at the Crematorium where he works. It's comical in a way, but also grizzly.

Step forward Scott Elrod who plays Matt, another loner and high school outcast, who strikes up a curious friendship with Stan. Matt starts work at the Crematorium and well things gather pace. I will say no more, so not to spoil the film. But be prepared for some twists and turns.

* I really liked this film. The friendship between Stan and Matt is intriguing, for as strange as it may seem Stan is the father figure Matt doesn't have.

There's blood. There's gore, but the movie should have lasted longer. The end is a slight disappointment in my view. But I expect you'll come to your own conclusions.

I gave this film 8 out of 10. Its current IMDb rating is far too low in my view. Maybe not enough people have seen it.

An absolute gem of the genre

[Arsenal-FC · 29 April 2013]

After watching "The Bucket List" (starring Will Smith and De Niro) last week, one particular phrase from the movie really stood out to me. "Witness something truly majestic" was the main characters fateful ambition, an idea which I, myself, took an immediate interest in.

Little did I know that two days later I would achieve this feat, when watching Justin Steele's Death and Cremation (2010). This amazing story sees Stanley (Brad Dourif), a lonely psychopath and serial killer working at a small town's crematorium, hire equally troubled teenager Jarod (Jeremy Sumpter) after the latter's stubborn persistence. What ensues is a riveting tale of unparalleled cinematic brilliance and character development not seen since the likes of Citizen Kane (1941).

The father-son dynamic which the viewer sees slowly unfold between the two main characters is one of the most powerful moments you will ever bare witness to in a film, and the intelligently written story will see you completely absorbed from start to finish. A particularly spectacular scene of note sees the two protagonists attempt to hide a body from the teenager's unsuspecting mother. This scene is possibly the funniest scene to ever grace the big screen in living memory, and alone easily merits a score of 10 for the movie.

I will close by simply saying, watch this movie. Watch it not because it is so damn great (it really is) but because you long to discover the genius of imagination brought to life. Watch it because it will prove to you that movies can be more than just movies. But most of all, watch it because is it better than The Woman.

A horror-comedy of a dry and twisted vintage. A classic Dourif performance

[deadbull-95171 · 10/10 · 23 December 2020]

If you like Brad Dourif, and I do, this is a Fine Thing, Brad always plays interesting souls, this time he runs a private crematoria and woe to you if you offend him, as he has quite the cover for his brutal vindictive murders at hand. A bullied eccentric "slacker", a tormented Goth High School Kid looking for the right kind of father, is forced to find employment and after rejecting a few wretched retail possibilities is drawn to the crematorium, and an odd mystic coincidence, as Brad has just removed from this planet the very high school girl (think Travolta's girlfriend in Carrie) who set up the kid to get attacked again in the schoolyard. They see something in each other off the bat and form what can't quite be called a friendship, more like a planet and a moon held in a perturbed orbit......But they are getting something from each other, one a mentor who is deeply perceptive and sympathetic to his eccentric bullied acolyte, and the other, a deeply morbid work environment that fits his Goth tastes. Dourif is Dourif, great in other words. The odd unhealing ugly scratches on his face, self inflicted mutilations from his abused childhood, suggest something boiling inside that is relentlessly on the move, on the ooze. The kid is a mix of repressed rage and vulnerability. Tounge and cheek enough to certainly be a horror-comedy, the movie is loaded with dark humor, the closing credits confirm that tone if you had any doubt........using the actual story board cards with opera, the heroes favorite musical choice, as an underlay for the credit montage. The main musical soundtrack is a tremendously slowed down 12 bar blues with symphonic flourishes that take it minor-major-minor -major, sweet and sour, horror comedic....all these semi subtle or glaring integrations, are part of the intelligent directorial and editing decisions that the movie is loaded with, which make themselves apparent immediately depending on the degree of perception you are in the mood to bring to it. Brad is the confident murderer who follows his private code all the way.

Crazy killers I'd imagine live in a world of their own egotistic devising...and here we have all the surreality trotted out that one could wish for, but served up in a plausible vaguely, very vaguely Hitchcockian way. I'm giving it a ten. This is not my supreme cup of Tea...but very tasty and soothing for an admirer of this actor's craft. He is allowed to rule this movie. Check it out.

Mean-spirited

[ClassyDame · 3 November 2011]

I like movies that make you become more aware of how we treat strangers. However! I felt that this movie got a bit silly and cliché as far as it's portrayal of "popularity" or the actions that popular people take. Also, The main kid that is supposed to represent a misfit social outcast pretty much looks like the kid that is suppose to represent a frat boy popular guy at his high school. Same physique pretty much, just black nail polish and a "Disturbed" T-shirt (a mainstream band that would make you look "cool" according to most high school students). It would have been more believable had the main misfit kid looked more like an overweight, shy introvert. I know Brad Dourif calls himself a "movie whore" and he will be in pretty much anything if he feels like it. I've fallen for him so many times (i.e. The Fading of the Cries movie, way more boring than this believe it or not) because I will watch anything he is in. This movie is worth it just because of his acting. I love the ending. Someone put in a previous review said that they felt it ended rather abruptly due to the movie makers having no more money...I really feel that that reviewer totally missed the point of this movie and is a good example of a "victim".

Dourif Is Great, As Usual

[murdocsmistress · 8/10 · 6 November 2022]

I enjoyed this movie. Granted, I'm a huge Brad Dourif fan and it's not often you get to see him in a starring role. It has a few slow spots and the actor playing the cop isn't very convincing but Dourif and the young man playing his protege were a great match.

I won't lie, I'm biased. I have enjoyed just about every Dourif film out there. Think the only one I couldn't get thru was Sonny Boy. Death and Cremation is a solid film. The two main characters think they're doing a public service. There's a cop trying to figure out what is happening. Murders, mystery, some moments where you root for the killers. How can you not enjoy that? There's even a Baldwin in it!

"What's In The Bag?!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 3 September 2021]

Stan (Brad Dourif) is a serial killer. He's kept very busy between murdering people and working at his crematorium.

Enter local high school outcast, Jarod (Jeremy Sumpter) who needs a job. Stan reluctantly hires the kid, since he's eager to learn about the business. It turns out that these two have more in common than their love of the funereal arts.

DEATH AND CREMATION is a wickedly bleak, suspenseful horror film. Both Dourif and Sumpter are convincing in their symbiotic roles. Dourif especially, once again showing his knack for pure, seething insanity.

Highly recommended for fans of dark movies in general and Mr. Dourif in particular...