Sketch troupe Simple Town transitions to the long form with this prankish take on horror terrain, also a feature debut for director Ian Faria. ‘Attack on Paradise’ Review: Under Siege From Both Criminals and Cops, a Hero Battles Upward in a Zesty High-Rise Actioner 2 days ago ‘No Rest for the Wicked’ Review: A Supernatural Gay Love Story in a 19th-Century Backwater 2 days ago ‘En Route To’ Review: In Strong Korean Debut, Adult Cares Complicate the Lives of Well-Drawn Teenage Heroines 2 months ago NYC-based sketch comedy quartet Simple Town, who have performed live and in online shorts over the last decade, make an amusing leap to the feature-film format in “ Big Break .” Ostensibly playing themselves, the group here gathers at a country manse to celebrate one member’s breakaway mainstream success — and for the other three to beg/cajole him into sharing that good fortune. Unbeknownst to the visitors, there’s an unhappy fifth party already in the house… and more than one homicidal maniac even within that small populace.
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Popular on Variety Reuniting with long-incommunicado former collaborator Sam (Sam Lanier) is a very big deal to Caro (Caroline Yost), Felipe (Felipe Di Poi) and Will (Will Niedemann), as their neurotically argumentative drive to see him underlines. They must pretend they’re simply glad to spend the weekend at their good buddy’s pad, a sizable estate two hours outside Manhattan, since he’s finally invited them over. But they’re each none-too-quietly seething with covetous anxiety and resentment, particularly since the thing that skyrocketed Sam to Hollywood wealth and fame — writing an animated film called “The Gummy Bear Movie” — happens to contain a lot of lines and ideas that were once group property, used without attribution.
The three are desperate to arm-twist their way into a slice of that future-career pie, though they can’t agree on how to broach the subject. No one is pleased when Will, having drunk too much alcohol way too fast, is first to blurt out a request-slash-demand. But then there’s another issue going on, which at first only the viewer is privy to: Success has gone to Sam’s head in more ways than one, unleashing an inner serial killer whose latest victim (Jefferson White from “Yellowstone”) gets introduced in a classic doomed-hiker-fleeing-through-the-woods sequence.
Naturally, there’s a sort of torture dungeon on the premises, which for the time being his guests are mercifully unaware of. But they soon get wise, and in the meantime a captive gets loose. He has very good reason to desire bloody revenge, though some spotty eavesdropping gives him the false impression that everybody here is complicit in the host’s crimes.
Soon, they’re all in an armed panic, likely to commit grievous bodily harm deliberately or otherwise. While Lanier gets sole screenplay credit, one suspects much improvisational input at work here from the practiced way the leads play off each other. Their air of slightly absurd quasi-spontaneity is nicely amplified by the jittery yet unobtrusive rhythms of the direction and Yost’s editing.
Amidst other solid contributions to a resourcefully produced whole, Alt-metal gods Helmet’s 1992 single “Get It” provides the perfect closing-credits sendoff. Production: A Simple Town production in association with BronxBurgh, International Pigeon Production. (World sales: CAA, Los Angeles.) Producers: Sarah Wilson, Ani Schroeter, Graham Mason, Richie Doyle, Conor Hannon, Caro Yost, Ian Faria, Sam Lanier, Will Niedmann, Felipe Di Poi.
Executive producers: Riccardo Maddalosso, Loren Jackson. Co-producers: Pete McClellan, Kate Lopez. Crew: Director: Ian Faria.
Screenplay: Sam Lanier. Camera: Alex Bliss. Editor: Caro Yost.
Music: Kyle Rodriguez. With: Sam Lanier, Felipe Di Poi, Caro Yost, Will Niedmann, Jefferson White, Ivy Wolk. Neon Bringing Na Hong-Jin’s ‘Hope’ to Comic-Con (EXCLUSIVE) Stephen King’s ‘Carrie’ Series Sets October Release Date, Drops Horrifying New Trailer ‘Star Trek’ Sets 60th Anniversary & ‘Strange New Worlds’ Comic-Con Hall H Panels, Fan Screening, Activations (EXCLUSIVE) Nickelodeon Announces ‘Fun-ergy Factory’ Experience at San Diego Comic-Con 2026 ‘Rings of Power’ Debuts Season 3 Trailer; Simon Pegg Joins Cast as the Balrog ‘Coyote vs.
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