53
Metascore
28 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80VarietyRob NelsonVarietyRob NelsonGive or take the titular disclosure, John Dies at the End is a thoroughly unpredictable horror-comedy -- and an immensely entertaining one, too.
- 80SlateDana StevensSlateDana StevensA gleefully crummy buddy comedy that uses horror-movie conventions as catapults to hurl the audience down one "whoa, dude!" narrative wormhole after another.
- 75The A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe A.V. ClubNathan RabinIt's a mess, but its best moments are exhilarating, getting hopelessly lost in Pargin's surreal, completely disorienting world.
- 60Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleLos Angeles TimesRobert AbeleFlaked with offbeat witticisms, cheese ball effects and fanboy splatter gore, the surreal John Dies at the End has the vibe of a shaggy dog story, which works both for and against it.
- 55NPRScott TobiasNPRScott TobiasOnce the colorful anecdotes sprawl out into an actual narrative, the film gets convoluted and loud, amplifying the weirdness without doing much to clarify it.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeA supernatural action comedy that can never live up to its exciting opening scenes, Don Coscarelli's John Dies at the End mixes horror-tinged mayhem with smart-alec laughs but loses momentum early and gets bogged down in exposition.
- 50ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliCoscarelli's screenplay introduces an abundance of intriguing concepts but never goes very far with any of them. The characters are paper thin and the special effects are laughably bad.
- 50Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternWall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAnother is how the film manages, in the absence of a coherent plot, to be so funny and engaging until, somewhere around the midpoint, it goes as flat as a stepped-on creepy-crawly.
- 25Slant MagazineSlant MagazineThe frantic, grotesque imagery ironically only highlights Don Coscarelli's inability to truly cut ties with the constraints of accepted storytelling.
- 10Village VoiceNick PinkertonVillage VoiceNick PinkertonJohn Dies at the End is a product of a parallel universe where slacker flippancy never got old-and, oh, it is terrible.