Founders Day (2023)
Directed by: Erik Bloomquist
Written by: Carson Bloomquist, Erik Bloomquist
Starring: Amy Hargreaves, Catherine Curtin, Devin Druid, Emilia McCarthy, Naomi Grace, Olivia Nikkanen
This is no Thanksgiving…..
While Eli Roth’s popular recent box-office smash had a vicious streak of dark humour running though its horror veins, this slasher flick from the Bloomquist Brothers, while drawing comparisons, is a more straight to the bone kill-fest that will appeal to the die-hard fans of this particular genre.
Set in the sleepy American town of Fairwood where the race of the next Mayor is taking place, a hostile battle of heads between the current, Mayor Gladwell (Amy Hargreaves) and her volatile competitor Harold Faulkner (Jayce Bartok), cue a lot of shouting scenes where the film tries to play its political hand, in which if you are like me, didn’t really care for as I was here for the killer in the mask, setting out for the traditional killings and bloodbath, a film like this promises.
And it does take a while! The opening sequence plays out a tad too long, before we get the first glimpse of this new killer, a cool set-up, dressed like a judge while wearing a carnival mask, swinging a gavel as its kill tool, yeah, its hard to come up with new designs for the next masked bogeyman, but to be fair, they literally “kill it” with this impressive look!
Olivia Nikkanen is the Drew Barrymore of this tale, her character Melissa being the first to be offed, just moments after she shares a kiss and padlocks Alison (Naomi Grace) to the local bridge – its a tradition – but as Melissa draws her final breath, Alison manages to escape and soon with the help of the other teens in the town, they try to work out who is behind the mask and why?
Yes, its very SCREAM, with even a school hall set-piece that harks back to the days of Stu and Tatum in which Kevin Williamson himself should sue for copyright, but to be fair, GHOSTFACE himself launched a pale of imitators in the late 90’s and this does feel like it belongs in that era, its not quite Urban Legend, but then its no Clown at Midnight either, a sort of in the middle with its quality, you can’t deny that there is a lot of love and care put into this and the film has a lot of interesting ideas, but it feels lacking in its execution.
The kills will appease the blood-hounds and there are some decent set-pieces, the reveal itself – a strong point for any slash who uses this blue-print- is well put together, but by the time the unmasked killer rolls out the standard “why I did it” motives, your engagement in the proceedings will most likely be lacking and as the final credits roll, you most likely feel that for a film that had so much to say, failed in its overall promise – much like a politician then!
Rating: 
Founders Day is available now to Rent and Buy
My fellow reviewer David S Smith, watched Founders Day at FRIGHTFEST 2023, read his thoughts here….
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