Everybody Dies By the End (2022) – Film Review

Directors: Ian Tripp and Ryan Schafer
Cast: Vinny Curran, Ian Tripp and Ryan Schafer
Certificate: 18

By Roger Crow

Director Alfred Costella (Vinny Curran) suffers a meltdown during a TV interview. The interviewer keeps his cool despite a foul-mouthed tirade from Costella, who displays the sort of hysteria reserved for crazy people.

Fast forward a few years and a couple of film makers are hired to document the making of the director’s new movie. It’s a comeback which promises to be a masterpiece, if Costella can keep things together.

The first 20 minutes of this mockumentary are rather promising as we’re drawn into the world of an egocentric auteur and the assorted actors and creatives who orbit around him.

But the problem with mockumentaries, unless made by Christopher Guest and Rob Reiner, is that the gag can run out of energy pretty fast. As a sketch, fine, but as a feature-length offering? Not so easy, especially without musical numbers to link scenes together. The daddy of the genre is of course This is Spinal Tap, which does make me wonder if Everybody Dies By the End would work better with a few tunes.

“Outstays his welcome”

The biggest problem is it feels like an episode of Inside No 9, but without the witty script by Pemberton and Shearsmith. Oh, and it’s three times the length of an episode, but sadly not three times more enjoyable.

If you’ve seen the making of The Shining, a superb documentary about Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror classic, you’ll know Stan pushed cast and crew to their limits to get his vision on screen. It does seem to have been a source of inspiration for a few scenes. And though the helmer of this film within a film has the commitment and Jekyll and Hyde temperament of many maverick directors, he outstays his welcome about half an hour in with his tantrums and self delusion.

There are a couple of comedy death scenes, but there’s also a disturbing inevitably about it all.

By the last act some will be desperate to see the film make good on its promise. For this viewer, it a shame Everybody Dies By the Middle wasn’t an option.