seems comforted by Al's sympathy over the visit of Melanie, the boss' wife. Later that night, Furrows loses an arm wrestling match to the noisy neighbour upstairs, thereby giving him the right to play metal as loud as he wants whenever he wants. After a day of "messing around", Furrows receives a knock at the door at the dreaded "eight o'clock" and is greeted by a limo driver. When he steps into the limo, the driver (Jim Carrey) turns around and reveals himself to be Death. Death tells Furrows that he has met his quota of saying "I wish I were dead" and must die, and Furrows complains about the stupidity of the rule until Death, unable to scare Furrows into line, puts him back into his body. Furrows awakes with frightened Al standing over him, trying to wake him. The story ends with the two going out to a restaurant, though Furrows' insistence that they serve him cereal, showing he's willing to try some new things but not all. After the credits, a short epilogue involves Death stopping the limo in a dark space and looking at the heavens. He claims that he just couldn't stand Thane and had to return him to life. He adds that he isn't ever coming back for Thane, implying that Thane may have just accidentally become immortal. Production High Strung was funded by former orchestra conductor Vladimir Horunzhy and rock guitarist Sergei Zholobetsky, both whom had fled to the United States from Russia in 1979 after they refused to join the Communist Party. Horunzhy persuaded Zholobetsky to invest his entire life savings to produce the film. High Strung was made on a budget of $400,000. Jim Carrey agreed to a small role in the film due to his friendship with Steve Oedekerk. His cameo is uncredited per the terms of contract, which reportedly forbids using Carrey's name in the film’s title, closing credits or the credit block on advertising posters. Carrey's management team asked the film producers to not use his name or likeness in association with the promotion of the film. Regardless, Carrey was featured prominently in the film's marketing. Release High Strung was screened at several film festivals including the San Jose Film Festival, the Palm Springs Film Festival, the 16th Cleveland International Film Festival, the 22nd USA Festival, Houston International Film Festival, the Rivertown Film Festival/Minneapolis, New Hampshire Film Festival,