WHERE THE DEAD GO TO DIE (2012) Retro-review!

Animated/Directed/Written by Jimmy ScreamerClauz.
Check out the trailer here!!

Three depraved chapters; “Tainted Milk”, “Liquid Memories”, and “The Masks That Monsters Wear” make up the animated nightmare known as WHERE THE DEAD GO TO DIE. Now, this film is not going to be for everyone. In fact, only the most twisted of you will be the target audience. This is not to say that this film isn’t well made. It’s just that the subject matter is a hard pill to swallow.

When children are placed in harm’s way, it’s always tough to see. Jimmy ScreamerClauz knows this and takes full advantage of that gut-churning feeling, but also, as with the films of Amblin which made their name with placing kids in peril, treats them as young adults with complex feelings and intelligent minds. The theme in all three of these twisted chapters is how the innocence of youth can be influenced and corrupted by dark forces, both physical and metaphysical. WHERE THE DEAD GO TO DIE just goes to dark, dark places to exemplify this in three interconnected stories.

“Tainted Milk” follows a neglected child whose parents are planning a divorce. Forced to make up his own playmates, the child begins talking with the neighborhood dog. Not totally unusual until the dog talks back, filling in the blanks to the child’s unanswered questions about the birds and the bees—specifically where his mother’s unborn child comes from. Childish jealousy and make believe become warped as the child’s impulsive and neglected nature causes him to lash out at his parents while sleeping. It’s a gory scene; one not for the faint of heart.

Story two, “Liquid Memories” follows the grown-up version of the child in the first story. Now a serial killer who murders people and pulls brain fluid out of their skulls with a syringe, hoping to absorb their memories, the grown boy runs into a prostitute and after killing her, he relives a dark memory from her past.

This leads to story three, the ominously titled “The Masks That Monsters Wear” about a deformed child who is forced to wear a ski mask by his abusive parents and how he forms a relationship with a little girl (the prostitute from story two). Though she looks perfectly normal, the girl is abused by her own father in many horrible ways best left unsaid. This tale centers around the little boy and girl’s misperception of the world around them and despite its disgusting details of child abuse both physical and sexual, it turns out to be a tender tale of two lost souls in an ugly world. Of all three tales, the last is the hardest to handle due to the subject of depraved child abuse, but though the subject matter is sick, the filmmaker doesn’t go exploitative. He is definitely not showcasing or emulating these acts. He seems to be showing them for the disgusting deeds that they are.

All of these chapters are done in a mish mash style of rudimentary 3D computer generated imagery, animation over filmed images a la Bakshi, and 2-dimensional clip art. This crude juxtaposition of animation forms a unique style all its own and turns out to be quite effective. The entire thing reminded me of a hard R version of the basic animation once found on MTV’s LIQUID TELEVISION—if all of those different forms of animation were pureed in a blender and poured onto celluloid, that is.

I have to repeat the warning. This is harsh subject matter not for all, but as a twisted piece of art, I can appreciate WHERE THE DEAD GO TO DIE. Jimmy ScreamerClauz has a firm hold on being able to tell a solid story, despite the warped and surreal places he side-trips to. His imagery of hellish landscapes and blood splattered murder scenes are the stuff of Walt Disney’s most bed-shittingest nightmares. Tread WHERE THE DEAD GO TO DIE at your own risk, but once the credits roll, you’re bound to not be the same.