Guillermo del Toro gives love to PHANTASM creator Don Coscarelli!
There's something magical, maybe even a little cosmic, about one horror master tipping their hat to another. This week, genre fans were gifted with a vintage gem of a recommendation that's resurfaced from Dread Central and deserves to be celebrated anew.
Guillermo del Toro, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind Pan's Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, and Crimson Peak, once heaped high praise on a delightfully bizarre entry in the horror canon: John Dies at the End, from Phantasm mastermind Don Coscarelli.
In a 2016 tweet that feels like a coded message to fans of strange cinema, del Toro declared:
"Film: John Dies at the End by Don Coscarelli. Coscarelli is right up there with Raimi in terms of zany horror/comedy. Lysergic fun."
Coscarelli's John Dies at the End is an adaptation of Jason Pargin's cult favorite novel, and it's just as out there as its title suggests. Featuring interdimensional travel, talking meat, and a drug known only as "Soy Sauce," the film exists in a space where logic is optional and the only rule is: get weird or go home. It's packed with cosmic horror, stoner comedy, and brain bending existential dread, all soaked in grindhouse attitude.
Adding to the film’s cult appeal, John Dies at the End features a memorable appearance by the late, great Angus Scrimm, best known to horror fans as the menacing Tall Man from Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm series. In John Dies, Scrimm plays a mysterious priest named Father Shellnut, bringing his signature gravitas and eerie presence to a role that, while brief, serves as a loving nod to longtime fans of Coscarelli’s work. His inclusion not only bridges the gap between Coscarelli’s past and present films but also adds an extra layer of horror royalty to this already off-the-wall experience. Scrimm’s appearance is a welcome Easter egg for genre devotees and a subtle reminder of the lasting legacy he and Coscarelli forged together.
While Coscarelli is best known for his legendary Phantasm series, an atmospheric blend of surreal horror and sci fi, he's no stranger to pushing boundaries. With John Dies at the End, he embraced a new generation of genre storytelling, balancing the same irreverence that made Raimi's early work so exhilarating with his own twisted vision of otherworldly terror.
If del Toro's praise and the feverish description have you intrigued, the good news is you don't have to travel across dimensions to find it. John Dies at the End is currently available to stream on Tubi and Xumo Play, so now is the perfect time to see what all the fuss is about.
