Everybody Dies by the End is a 2022 American comedy horror mockumentary film which follows a dictatorial director as he makes his final film – an all-practical effects masterpiece… with a dark twist.
Directed by Ian Tripp and Ryan Schafer from a screenplay written by Tripp.
The Children of Celluloid production stars Vinny Curran, Bill Oberst Jr, Brendan Cahalan, Iliyana Apostolova, Ian Tripp, Joshua Wyble, Ryan Schafer, Caroline Amiguet, Paul Fisher III and Alan Vazquez.
Review:
Forgive me if I am mistaken, but perhaps the earliest depiction of an over-the-edge filmmaker, drunk with power and manipulation, who resorts to actual fatalities to get the cinematic impact he wants goes back to Erich Von Stroheim in 1932’s The Lost Squadron.
Fast-forward to this new, bloodthirsty century and raising the sadism factor, and one has this mockumentary from tandem filmmakers Ian Tripp and Ryan Schafer, an extra-chocolate-bitter-dark-humoured horror-splatter item. It attempts to make up in sheer enthusiasm and a scenery-chewing lead performance what it lacks in originality or plot line surprises.
As one character sagely points out, “Everybody Dies By the End” is the title of a film-within-a-film here, and a detail such as that pretty much gives away the whole thing.
The feature is shot largely in “found-footage” fashion. Premise: Alfred Costella (Vinny Curran) is a volatile, uncompromising, no-filters filmmaker, not unlike Quentin Tarantino (maybe) in his demeanour and culty appeal, with hyper-violent movies like “Battery Acid” in his oeuvre. Thanks to a profane and hostile TV interview, Costella’s career has seen a downturn, but he vows a roaring comeback with his tenth (and farewell) feature, entitled – wait for it – “Everybody Dies By the End.”
To shoot behind-the-scenes material, Costella hires a few eager applicants, and it is through their lenses that we see most of the proceedings unfold, at the private movie “ranch” (a clue there; Charles Manson also holed up with his followers in a ranch) where Costella and a fanatically dedicated crew do their grisly work.
Before long the documentary crew realise that their crazed, narcissistic employer is a literal lunatic and that Costella’s support staff are a zombie cult of minions who will carry out his every whim. Costella’s ravings about finding “truth” in onscreen violence put his increasingly reluctant cast (which seems to be only two actors) in actual danger, and worse, ultimately making the disc-extra filmmakers complicit in his madness.
Actor Curran certainly puts his all into the long, manic, self-pitying, self-justifying monologues to the camera about his “art”. Satire points should be duly awarded by anyone who has ever suffered through knowing a pretentious filmmaker like this (no names, please – though all of you are now thinking of some, I can guarantee), either via the safe distance of commentary tracks or – horrors – meeting such egotists in person (hopefully just at festivals, not on-set). But apart from an even bleaker twist coda, Everybody Dies at the End does not do much to make the acquaintance worth the unpleasantness.
Charles Cassady Jr
Trailer 1:
Trailer 2:
Full film – free to watch online:
Release:
Everybody Dies by the End premiered at FrightFest 2022 in London in August 2022, and played at Dublin Horrorthon. Terror Films released the movie On-Demand (VOD) worldwide on September 22, 2023. It is now free to watch on some YouTube channels.
