The story of a troubled teenager and his emotional support murderer.
Death and Cremation is an independent thriller starring Brad Dourif and Jeremy Sumpter, and directed by Justin Steele.
The plot centers around the unlikely friendship between Jarod, a troubled goth teenager, and Stanley, an aging funeral home owner with a habit of solving suburban squabbles with murder.
After taking a job as an assistant at Stanley’s Crematorium, Jarod starts to open up to his new boss about his problems at school, where he is mercilessly bullied. Stanley, in turn, enjoys having some company for once, and another person who shares his enthusiasm for crosswords and retribution. Unfortunately, Jarod becomes a bit too involved in the messier side of the business, forcing Stanley to do some split-second problem solving to keep his young employee out of trouble.
This film provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Lindsey Weaver considers Jarod to be this, and uses his attraction to her as a ploy to lure him away from the rest of the students so her boyfriend can ambush him.
- Alpha Bitch: Lindsey seems to be this, as she is both popular and able to organize bullying campaigns against students who are less so.
- AM/FM Characterization: Stanley is frequently shown listening to La Donna e Mobile in his car as he’s planning to kill somebody. It’s out of place coming from his beat up rig, and serves to both establish him as someone with dissonant tastes and characteristics, and as someone who lacks faith in humanity, as the lyrics of the piece are quite cynical in their own right.
- Anti-Villain: Stanley may have an overinflated sense of justice, but he genuinely cares about Jarod, and is shown going through great lengths to help him with his problems including murdering his biggest bully and helping him hide the body of his mom’s womanizing boyfriend.
- Arch-Enemy: Jarod and his main bully, David Valentine.
- Asshole Victim: Most of Stanley’s victims fall into this category, although his ideas of what constitutes a punishable offense can be a bit lax, including people who road rage at him and hog spots in parking lots.
- The Bad Guy Wins: The movie ends with both Stanley and Jarod getting away with murder, and possibly planning another one.
- Berserk Button: Stanley doesn’t like a lot of people, so Heaven help anyone who endangers the rare few he does like. Double if you have the audacity to call him “Stan” while doing so.
- Betty and Veronica: Lindsey and her much nicer friend, Courtney.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Lindsey is nice to Jarod long enough to get him to let his guard down so her boyfriend and his buddies can jump him.
- Blatant Lies: Jarod and Stanley are prone to telling these, especially while trying to think of a cover story for why they’re lugging around a heavy, smelly tarp that looks suspiciously like it’s holding a dead body.
- Bludgeoned to Death: Stanley’s preferred method of killing people seems to be with a blow to the head with whatever he has on hand, and does use a mallet on one occasion.
- Bound and Gagged: Stanley frequently transports his victims to more convenient killing grounds in this fashion.
- Camp Straight: In spite of his goth fashion choices and sometimes effeminate mannerisms, Jarod is shown only to be attracted to women. This doesn’t stop his bullies from throwing homophobic slurs at him though.
- Car Fu: Stanley runs over a bound victim for his first on screen kill.
- Caught with Your Pants Down: Stanley breaks into one of his victims houses and is able to sneak up on him partially because he’s too distracted watching porn in his room.
- Crapsack World: The suburban setting of the story seems to be teaming with selfish people, bratty teenagers, homophobes, and just unpleasantness in general.
- Creepy Souvenir: Doubling as an Evidence Dungeon, the basement of Stanley’s funeral home is filled with the ashes of his victims, all compiled neatly on shelves and initialed.
- Didn't Think This Through: Jarod is clearly in over his head after going vigilante on mom’s boyfriend, Richard. He makes multiple careless mistakes in his attempt to hide the body, making cleanup a lot harder.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: After Jarod kills Richard, he proceeds to drag the body into his house in broad daylight and hide it in his closet.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Most of Stanley’s kills are just run-of-the-mill jerks, like road ragers and schoolyard bullies. Nasty people for sure, but nowhere near bad enough to deserve being killed.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Stanley develops a paternal concern for Jarod, and is willing to risk his own life to help him.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Stanley may be a murderer, but he draws the line at smoking in his house. Similarly, Jarod asks Stanley not to kill the neighbor who saw him drag Richard’s body into the house because he considers him to be innocent.
- Fan Disservice: The scene where a victim is caught while masturbating is…uncomfortable.
- Freudian Excuse: It is implied that Stanley’s murderous ways are from the physical and sexual abuse he experienced at the hands of his father.
- Hated Hometown: Jarod greatly dislikes his hometown due to having been bullied by the other residents for years.
- Improvised Weapon: Although he prefers blunt weapons, Stanley can use anything in a pinch, and Jarod’s mom’s conspicuous return from her grocery run...well, let’s just say it comes in handy.
- Karma Houdini: Neither Stanley or Jarod face any consequences for their crimes aside from the inconvenience of having to dispose of some extra bodies.
- Oh, Crap!: Both Stanley and Jarod get a series of these towards the end of the film. As an inexperienced killer, Jarod has carelessly dragged the body of his mom’s boyfriend back to his house in broad daylight, caught the attention of a neighbor, stuffed him in his bedroom closet, and called Stanley in a panic to help him dispose of it. It only gets worse when both his mom and the police show up.
- Papa Wolf: Stanley becomes one for Jarod.
- Pet the Dog: Stanley’s concern for Jarod is one giant dog petting for an otherwise unsettling character.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: “My NAME…is STANLEY!!!”
- Police Are Useless: After killing uninterrupted for presumably years, only one officer seems to have caught on to the fact that Stanley’s more than just an eccentric old loner, but he is quickly dispatched in the movie’s climax.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: All of the bullies at Jarod’s school seem fond of throwing around homophobic slurs.
- Protagonist Journey to Villain: Although he remains likable throughout the whole film, Jarod becomes disturbingly okay with murder by the end.
- Rape as Drama: Stanley’s backstory involves his father raping both his mom and him.
- Serial Killer: Stanley for sure, and it is heavily implied that Jarod will become one as well.
- Sympathetic Murderer: Stanley and later, Jarod. Thanks to his tragic backstory and being played by Brad Dourif, who is an old hand at playing such characters, one can’t help but feel at least a little sorry for the resident serial killer.
- Villain Protagonist: Stanley and Jarod.
- Willing Suspension of Disbelief: It’s pretty far fetched to think that a man who is universally regarded as a weirdo, and runs a funeral home seemingly without having a single customer could get away with a lifelong killing spree in a single community without attracting some sort of attention is from local law enforcement.
- Would Hurt a Child: Not quite children, but at least two of Stanley’s victims are teenagers.
