Nothing worse than an unfunny comedy, that's always been my opinion, and unfortunately I SELL THE DEAD is such a beast. It's an American film masquerading as a British one, but of course the broad strokes of US humour are a far cry from the more subtle and cynical ones of a truly British production. Thus the film sits oddly, looking more like a little homemade movie than a proper film.
This is a blackly comic twist on graverobbing, although the low budget just isn't up to the task of making the period setting remotely believable. Graverobbing comedies are surprisingly popular - there was BURKE & HARE in the 1970s, alongside the more recent version with Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis - but they're hard to get right. I SELL THE DEAD goes for the over the top approach, throwing the undead and even aliens into the mix, and the result is nothing more than a mess.
It takes a special kind of actor to bring a lacklustre script to life, and the weak Dominic Monaghan certainly isn't the guy. Larry Fessenden is better as the stoic partner, but he doesn't breathe much life into the movie. Ron Perlman appears for all of five minutes, although it was fun to see an almost unrecogniably aged Angus Scrimm in a cameo appearance. In the end, though, I SELL THE DEAD is all about the jokes and for this viewer they fell flat throughout.
