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Weird Anti-Piracy Trailer for Don Coscarelli's 'John Dies at the End'

by Ethan Anderton
December 28, 2012

Well, this is weird. In case you hadn't heard, John Dies at the End, the new film from Bubba Ho-Tep director Don Coscarelli, is now available on VOD through iTunes, Amazon, PS3, XBOX 360 and more. However, the indie film doesn't want any trouble with piracy before it heads into theaters on January 25th next year, so this anti-piracy trailer has been sent out to somehow scare those bad Internet people who are trying to destroy independent film. Basically, if you pirate the film, you'll spontaneously combust. It's pretty cheesy, but the message is good. Don't be a dumb jerk and steal this movie on the Internet. Watch below!

Here's the gory anti-piracy trailer for Don Coscarelli's John Dies at the End, from YouTube:

It's a drug that promises an out-of-body experience with each hit. On the street they call it Soy Sauce, and users drift across time and dimensions. But some who come back are no longer human. Suddenly a silent otherworldly invasion is underway, and mankind needs a hero. What it gets instead is John and David, a pair of college dropouts who can barely hold down jobs. Can these two stop the oncoming horror in time to save humanity? No. No, they can't. Based on David Wong's 2007 book. Written & directed by Don Coscarelli (of Phantasm I-IV, The Beastmaster, Survival Quest, Bubba Ho-Tep). This first premiered at Sundance and is hitting theaters on January 25th, plus VOD starting right now. Visit: johndies.com.

Filed under To Watch, Trailers

From around the web:

whizzzrrdrry

Well at least they are entertaining about whole anti-piracy campaign.I doubt it will stop the assholes from pirating it though...lets hope it does not hurt the movie too much..
guilamu

Has proved a million times already, piracy never hurts, on the contrary. Is there still anyone to believe otherwise when eve the majors are using it to promote their films: http://torrentfreak.com/hollywood-studios-caught-pirating-movies-on-bittorrent-121225/
- http://twitter.com/ethicalfan EthicalFan
  
  The US Bureau of Labor Statistics says that musicians wages are down 45% since p2p technology arrived. US Home video sales (DVD, BluRay, PayTV, VOD, Streaming) are down 25% to $18.5B in 2011 from $25B in 2006. The first BitTorrent search engines debuted in 2004. Recorded music is down worldwide from $27B in 1999 (Napster) to $15B in 2011. Video Game revenue (consoles & PC) is down 13% from 2007.
  - Ben
    
    And yet cinema revenue is up... 2012 just set a new box office record. As is concert revenue for musicians, with the easier ability to tour, musicians are making more money than ever before from touring. And the big decrease in home video sales is also because VOD purchases which account for 45% of sales... they also cost the studios nothing to produce, so they are actually making more money.
    - Michael
      
      What do you mean "easier ability to tour"?
    - http://www.facebook.com/people/Abelardo-Gutierrez-Chavez/640091706 Abelardo Gutierrez Chavez
      
      Yes, please explain the "easier ability to tour" part from your post...
      - Ben
        
        Perhaps not in America... but in many other parts of the world the last 10 years has brought about bigger airports, more flights and cheaper flights. Gone are the days where a band would have to bus around a country and have to spend a month there. Also, festivals is also a really cost effective way for bands to tour, and there has been a HUGE increase in touring festivals worldwide over the past 10 years. The US probably hasn't had any increase in concert revenue, but the rest of the world has.
  - castingcouch
    
    And all of those statistics you mention have nothing to do with piracy. Look deeper and you will find other reasons for the drops. Also, video game revenue rose to a high of US$18.8 billion in 2007. Piracy existed before then and revenue was lower. How do you explain that?
  - Craig
    
    I've heard musicians say that they're making more money now than they used to, and that it's only the major record labels that have taken a big hit. Console video game sales are down because we're nearing the end of a console generation. Sales are down from the highs they achieved in 2007-2010, but they're still much higher than they were for the previous generation (PS2, Xbox, Gamecube). I speculate that PC gaming sales are down because of the increasing levels of advanced hardware needed to play these games. This is especially true of MMOs. One of the biggest reasons World of Warcraft has been so successful is because you don't need an $800 PC to run it. It's a fallacy that every pirated movie/game/song is a revenue loss. The majority of people who pirate something wouldn't have bought it anyway, if piracy wasn't an option. There is evidence that piracy actually helps independently produced media, whose developers don't have the money to spend on marketing. Several film directors have said that their films' DVD sales were floundering until the movies were leaked onto the internet, and then their sales exploded. Piracy is good word of mouth. There is the morality question of whether piracy is wrong/immoral. If stealing is immoral then how is piracy any different? And my answer is that it depends on your intentions. If you pirate something with the intention of never buying it, regardless of whether or not you enjoyed it? Then yes, that is wrong. But I view piracy as sort of a library system. If I find something I like, I will definitely buy it. I may pirate more movies than the average American sees in a year, but I also buy 10x more movies than the average American does in a year. I spent $1,500 on blu-rays last year. There's a famous anti-piracy ad that says, "You wouldn't steal a car..." Well, no. I wouldn't. But I also wouldn't buy a car without test driving it. To flip the morality/legality question around: If you buy a DVD, do you think it is immoral or should be illegal for you to loan that DVD to a friend or family member?
    - it's not that simple
      
      "To flip the morality/legality question around: If you buy a DVD, do you think it is immoral or should be illegal for you to loan that DVD to a friend or family member?" There is nothing to think about.This is regulated by the copyright law.If you let your friends borrow your legally acquired DVD for free it's fine.Unless you charge it,try to make money of it,then you are in violation of the law and a bit of a dick to your friends frankly. But I see where are you going with this.Copyright law such as it is in its present form is not adequate for digital form of lending files to your "friends" since the process means actually making copies which exceed legally allowed limit,if you take torrenting for example.Your intent might not be in the interest of you gaining financial profit but it clashes with the industries interests ...which takes "the stick" approach to its competition rather then to try and find a way to monetize the whole filesharing scene.There is some attempt to that end but much too small to "compete " with piracy.At the beginning of the internet it was believed there is no way to monetize the whole thing,but they found a way. I am sure they can figure something out for filesharing.But,It's still easier for them to cling to old ways and defend them with draconian laws.Fortunatelly there is no stoping progress and technology so they will have to adapt to the reality of the situation.I doubt they will manage to completelly police and censor the internet(is it even feasible?) so they better find a friendlier way of competing with piracy.
- it's not that simple
  
  Things are never black and white my friend.Piracy is not a great menace as the industry is trying to portray it but to say it does no damage at all is a bit myopic.Besides it's against the law,no matter how stupid ,inadequate and outdated the laws concerning copyright issues are, it's still illegal.
  - guilamu
    
    Okay, no one is speaking about the music industry here. One last not-needed-fact to state again the obvious: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3595&p=.htm
    - it's not that simple
      
      Music industry? By industry I meant entertainment industry,that means all media including movies,books,videogames ect.Copyright laws are about all media not just music industry.And yes,big ass movies like Avengers and other blockbusters don't suffer much from piracy but again too claim it does not hurt small independent movies like this one is oversimplifying things.
  - Craig
    
    >"but to say it does no damage at all is a bit myopic." I disagree. Take any random movie. There are some people who pirate it who never would have paid to see it. These people do not represent a revenue loss. There are people who pirate it who would have paid to see it. These people do represent a revenue loss. But then there are also people who never would have paid to see the movie, but then liked the movie so much after they pirated it, that they go out and buy it. The question is whether the second group outweighs the third group. As for the legality issue: We have all kinds of inane laws on the books. Prior to a 2003 Supreme Court ruling that overturned them, we had 14 states in which it was illegal to perform oral sex.
    - Wilhem Von Hapsburg
      
      Check out this link: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/28/business/la-fi-ct-film-pirate-20100928 Blockbuster movies, AAA game titles, and Top 40 artists can shoulder the losses caused by piracy. The small-time producers can't. Just as pirates are not a monolithic block, neither are the victims of piracy. Indie filmmakers, game developers, and musicians deserve their share of the profits, too.
      - it's not that simple
        
        Thank you.I find it really tiresome when binary logic is applied to every issue.Life is not black and white no matter how hard we try to make it so.There are much more shades of grey than simple black and white view of any subject matter.I 'd dare to say reality is nothing but different shades of grey.Everything else is just naive and biased idealism.
- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3769949/ thatpj
  
  Used same link on Magnet's post about this PSA and they did not take too kindly to it. LOL Blind leading the blind.
Cody W

Well thats a good way to make everyone want to pirate the film.
Gill

I wanted to watch this through legitimate means, but they've made their VOD release exclusive to the US. LAME.
- Gill
  
  Lots of people are arguing about when it is or isn't "okay" to pirate a movie on this thread. The fact remains that piracy is illegal. It's stealing. But like this PSA says, it's a matter of availability. If you make things easier to buy than to pirate, people will buy them. But going back to my point above, none of that matters if you DON'T MAKE YOUR MOVIE AVAILABLE EXCEPT IN ONE COUNTRY.
  - nathan
    
    Absolutely - Point in case, I have all the Harry Potters on DVD and I am very savvy with IT and can I get the legal digital download tools to work that accompany my discs? Hell no, gave up long ago... they need to get their ass in gear.
http://twitter.com/ganaeshd Ganaesh Devaraj

What if the movie never comes to your country? What if you're a film geek and you LOVE movies but purchasing that movie that you love legitimately is a serious chunk of your monthly pay? What then?
- Just Trolling Don
  
  "Legitimate" love of movies is a poor excuse in a court of law for copyright infringement...if you are tight for money as in survival I am sure movies are the last thing on your mind...don't get me wrong..I am a dirty dirty pirate but at least I don't pretend I am entitled to stuff just because I am a "legitimate" fan of certain media...we are both breaking the law because it's easy and in many cases easier to obtain media through piracy than to buy it through legal channels...as for this movie never coming to your region..I believe amazon is available worldwide..everywhere with internet access..
  - jadk157
    
    Amazon is available worldwide but its content might not be.........for example in my country the entire Kindle catalogue is made up of only 11 books........so yea.....sigh
  - Wafffles
    
    There are countries where a decent months pay at a reasonable job is far, far too little to budget 5-15 USD for a movie. If it never makes it to their country's theaters, they never have an opportunity to see it at an affordable price. Your response to that is 'they have more to worry about'? Yeah, no. Moving to a major world economy just to 'deserve' your choice of movies is a poor argument.
    - Just Trolling Don
      
      Yes ,yes poor can "steal" to enjoy things we take for granted...the thing is though I find it a bit cynical how some spoiled brat from major world economy as you put it finds it so easy to use the poor people as a moral justification for breaking the law.You are not Robin Hood,you are not a revolutionary,you are just a spoiled entitled brat who pirates stuff just because it's easier that way.I don't have a problem with piracy per se I just can't stand the hypocrisy displayed.You are breaking the law.Pure and simple.Yes the laws regarding copyright are inadequate to the reality of the situation in media distribution and technology and approach to piracy by the industry and law makers is wrong and idiotic but you are still breaking the law.Just admit you are doing it because it's easy and not out of some heroic motivation. If you really want to help poor people of the world than go do some charity work or join an organization which does so.Don't just "like" a facebook page about it. I am also a dirty pirate but I don't find it to be some morally superior or inferior thing it's just a matter of convenience. I am simply lazy just like the next Joe and it's way too easy to just click a download link/torrent.
- Deyan
  
  My point exactly.
- Greedo
  
  Then you go without seeing it. When I was in my 20s (in the 80s) there were many Asian films that I wanted to see, but they never came to the states. They were for sale at high end video stores, and were very expensive. But I couldn't just steal the VHS tapes, could I? Would that be right? Nope. I went without seeing them. Eventually, in the 90s I saw many of them on DVD. I just waited.
shiboleth

this is not worth downloading. Not even for free...
David Banner

That warning video was hilarious. If you missed the point, don't download independent movies, they struggle enough as it is. The video didn't say anything about the "other movies".
castingcouch

"You wouldn't steal a baby..."
- capitandelespacio
  
  "You wouldn't shoot a policeman, and then steal his helmet..."
  - Greg dinskisk
    
    Well, YOU wouldn't...
  - David Banner
    
    Depends, did he steal the baby?
quazimoto

If anyone wants to pirate this movie they have problems. I watched 'John" last night via xbox Video streaming and was massively disappointed. Being a big fan of Bubba Ho-Tep I was hoping this had promise. Especially with Paul Giamatti involved. But that's not the case. Incredibly boring and incoherent, 'John Dies At The End' is a painfully dull wannabe new age version of 'Fear & Loathing'. Don't waste your time pirating or watching, because both are bad things to do when it comes to this movie.
- argh matey
  
  I like it.It reminds me of original italian Dylan Dog comics.This movie is much better than the american movie Dylan Dog.That was just shit.
Japetto

Piracy is tricky thing but ultimately you cant exactly monetize something that is abundant (digital media) through traditional means.
http://www.facebook.com/juan.f.rodriguez.50999 Juan F Rodriguez

I saw this movie and it looked good at the start but then it became a weird and bouring Stephen King like story that just wasn't any good nor special. It was just Stephen with out the King, lol.