The sketch-comedy-to-horror pipeline has always existed, but it’s red-hot right now. Obsession, Barbarous, To go out, Hell baby, Club Terror. All of these titles were conceptualized and directed by famous jesters who took the genre by storm (or in Broken Lizard’s and Hell baby(they did, they had fun doing their thing). New York comedy troupe Simple Town is the latest to jump genres with its Fantasia Festival premiere, Big Break, although they opt for metatextual narration. Samuel Lanier is writing a script about Simple Town, where everyone plays themselves but finds themselves in exaggerated horror-comedy circumstances. It’s a gamble that relies on the members’ chemistry and improvisational skills against supernatural thrills, which only succeeds because… well, Simple Town knows funny.
In this fictional universe, let’s say parallel to Simple Town, Sam broke into Hollywood by writing a successful film Gummy Bears. Caroline Yost, Felipe Di Poi Tamargo and Will Niedmann feel left out until they receive an invitation from Sam to meet at his vacation home. The three Townies agree, but not only to ruin everything with the brainwashed Los Angeles version of their fourth musketeer. Caroline and the others consider how to delicately approach a possible role in the upcoming Gummy Bears sequel, which Sam is currently stressing over. Peach Ring, Gummy Shark, any role would do, but before they can seal the deal, the night takes a surprisingly violent turn.
HAS Big breakThe heart of this story is the crisis of every struggling artist, unleashing the monster of jealousy that lives within each of us. Sam’s immediate success is juxtaposed with the open can of dog food in Caroline’s car (which she swears she didn’t eat), or Felipe’s inability to interact with women his age while he’s stuck chasing his dreams. For every front-page celebrity, there are twenty more souls who have yet to achieve stardom, and Big break is not only an ode to this dangerous desire, but also to what it can corrupt. Sam could change his friends’ lives with a simple phone call, and yet no doors have been opened. Caroline, Felipe and Will do not want to offend their now great friend, but convince themselves that they are owed professional generosity – a recipe which, fortunately, for us, ends in disaster.
Granted, Big break is a showcase for Simple Town jokes. Director Ian Faria sticks to the architecture of a satirical showbiz satire, but how the scenes unfold depends largely on how the conversations develop. The tension initially comes from knowing who will be the first to communicate their intentions to Sam and how this will be received. As the quartet roast each other, lament their stormy lives and argue over who deserves what, Big break remains in the group’s wheelhouse. It’s heavier on the “comedy” aspect of horror comedies, which might be a struggle for those craving harder bites of their genre.
However, Big break successfully sprinkles some thrills. There’s a serial killer on the loose in the area of Sam’s isolated estate, and yet the ridiculous Simple Town on screen is too busy trying to find its way to the next Gummy Bears entry to care. On a small scale, it draws comparisons to the Apple TV The Workshop in the way he approaches Hollywood (and its Kool-Aid Man adaptation), but with a more independent mindset. Caroline, Felipe, and Will laugh easily as they tiptoe around describing what they want to ask Sam, but then, when their motivations are clear to Sam, desperation kicks in. Caroline tests horrible voice samples for Sam, Felipe shows no chill when he introduces Sam, and Will… well, he comes off as silly and innocent. All this while Sam is preoccupied, not giving any of them his full attention, which only makes their attempts even stupider in the moment.
That said, Big break is random when dealing with extended bits. This is doubly true during a fierce third act where jokes between friends become terrible threats and the potential for blackmail. Simple Town deserves its light laughs, testing the limits of friendships in terms of platonic nepotism, but the darker humor later clashes with standard killer-in-the-woods traits that are less fulfilling. It’s all connected, as the paranoia escalates with the increasingly disturbing events on screen, but there’s something about Simple Town’s dance around secrets that’s more fun before said secrets are revealed. I don’t want to say much more for spoiler purposes, just how much more engaged I felt with the slightly off-kilter idiots of Simple Town before it all got all stabbed and gory like we’ve seen before.
Kudos to Simple Town for breaking the horror-comedy barrier by staying true to its signature style of humor. Big break is sometimes heartwarming, often brings jokes, and works as a microchasmic vision to get your foot in the door by any means necessary. It’s not airtight – some gags fly while others groan – but overall, Simple Town wins us over by staying true to its name and keeping things simple. Maybe it’s sloppy salad preparation, a confusingly poured cocktail, or the ignorance of celebrity seekers who miss a parade of red flags. Through it all, Simple Town strives to make us laugh while releasing what is likely a shared frustration about hitting the Hollywood jackpot.
Their pain, fortunately or unfortunately, ends up being our pleasure.
Movie score: 3/5
