FOUNDER'S DAY (2024)
Label: Dark Sky Films
Region Code: R
Rating: A
Duration: 106 Minutes 57 Minute
Audio: - Audio Commentary With
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen
Director: Erik Bloomquist
Cast: Amy Hargreaves, Naomi Grace, Catherine Curtin, Emilia McCarthy, Olivia Nikkanen, William Russ
Founder's Day (2024) is a satirical political slasher from the Bloomquist Brothers (She Came from the Woods) wherein a small town about to celebrate it's three-hundred her tri-tennial is shaken by a series of ominous killings in the days leading up to a heated mayoral election between incumbent Mayor Blair Gladwell (Amy Hargreave, Blue Ruin) and mayoral hopeful Harold Faulkner (Jayce Bartok, Suburbia). The killings start when teen couple Allison (Naomi Grace, Gridiron Grind) and Melissa (Olivia Nikkanen, TV's Supergirl) meet on a bridge at night and are having a discussion about their post highschool graduation plans, when suddenly someone rolls up with their bright lights on, revving the engine aggressively. Melissa gets vocal to the unknown voyeur, shouting at them, when they emerges from the car dressed in a judge's gown and creepy powdered-wig, red mask, bashing her in the head with a wooden gavel with a switchblade knife that pops out of the gavel's handle, before throwing her off the bridge to her death. More victims are killed during the next couple of days while the politically divided townsfolk and politicians argue incessantly about their differing political views while Allison attempts to find out who the killer is, teaming-up with Melissa's brother Adam (Devin Druid, TV's 13 Reasons Why) to get to the bottom of things, since the town's cops Commissioner Peterson (Catherine Curtin, Stranger Things) and Deputy Miller (Adam Weppler, She Came from the Woods) seem pretty worthless. Eventually both candidate's lose children to the masked killer, with both candidates disgustingly using town sympathy for their loss to try to secure political points with the constituents, while more teens ends up dead at the hands of the killer. Victims include a problematic prankster teen couple Britt (Kate Edmonds, The Third Saturday in October) and Tyler (Dylan Slade), both children of candidate Faulkner, and Mayor Gladwell's daughter LIlly (Emilia McCarthy, Hemlock Grove)is cruelly murdered as well. With the continuing murders and no arrest in sight tempers and political diatribes flare up, accusations fly, and no one feels safe, leading to fingers being pointed in all directions.
Founder's Day (2024) is a satirical political slasher from the Bloomquist Brothers (She Came from the Woods) wherein a small town about to celebrate it's three-hundred her tri-tennial is shaken by a series of ominous killings in the days leading up to a heated mayoral election between incumbent Mayor Blair Gladwell (Amy Hargreave, Blue Ruin) and mayoral hopeful Harold Faulkner (Jayce Bartok, Suburbia). The killings start when teen couple Allison (Naomi Grace, Gridiron Grind) and Melissa (Olivia Nikkanen, TV's Supergirl) meet on a bridge at night and are having a discussion about their post highschool graduation plans, when suddenly someone rolls up with their bright lights on, revving the engine aggressively. Melissa gets vocal to the unknown voyeur, shouting at them, when they emerges from the car dressed in a judge's gown and creepy powdered-wig, red mask, bashing her in the head with a wooden gavel with a switchblade knife that pops out of the gavel's handle, before throwing her off the bridge to her death. More victims are killed during the next couple of days while the politically divided townsfolk and politicians argue incessantly about their differing political views while Allison attempts to find out who the killer is, teaming-up with Melissa's brother Adam (Devin Druid, TV's 13 Reasons Why) to get to the bottom of things, since the town's cops Commissioner Peterson (Catherine Curtin, Stranger Things) and Deputy Miller (Adam Weppler, She Came from the Woods) seem pretty worthless. Eventually both candidate's lose children to the masked killer, with both candidates disgustingly using town sympathy for their loss to try to secure political points with the constituents, while more teens ends up dead at the hands of the killer. Victims include a problematic prankster teen couple Britt (Kate Edmonds, The Third Saturday in October) and Tyler (Dylan Slade), both children of candidate Faulkner, and Mayor Gladwell's daughter LIlly (Emilia McCarthy, Hemlock Grove)is cruelly murdered as well. With the continuing murders and no arrest in sight tempers and political diatribes flare up, accusations fly, and no one feels safe, leading to fingers being pointed in all directions.
Watching this you can tell the Bloomquist Brothers are horror fans and probably pretty big slasher fans, but I felt that this was a very poorly executed slasher film for the most part. The kills are bloody but weak and uninspired, the political satire of it feels played out by the 10-minute mark, and the slasher twists and turns it takes while certainly head spinning are not earned and did nothing for me. Also, I am not usually one to knock there being a lot of unlikable characters in a slasher film, I love rooting for assholes to get hacked to pieces, but literally everyone here is a grade-A narcissistic asshole, and not just the mayoral candidates, though they truly are the worst. About the only adults who are seemingly not terrible people are Allison's father Thomas (Andrew Stewart-Jones, TV's Gotham) and their kindly old neighbor, Councilman Jackson (William Russ, Cruising), but even Thomas annoyed me a bit, right when people are being killed left and right in town he hears a noise in his house and runs to the kitchen to grab... a spatula? Good luck protecting your family with that pops.
I will give it that I did not quite see the multi-faceted twist coming, but once that reveal is set in motion and we see events play out from another POV it did little to win me over. I did think that the cast was fine, I just think the script wasn't very good, the characters are all one-dimensional, and they were just doing what they could with the material. The political division aspect is certainly timely, I just think it's poorly realized and felt like a first draft script that could have been refined to a sharper point with a bit more nuance. On top of that it looks pretty cheap, lacks any style or atmosphere, and at the end of the day it made me just want to watch Thanksgiving or It's A Wonderful Knife, which are both better made small-town slashers.
Audio/Video: Founder;s Day (2024) arrives on Blu-ray from dark Sky Films in 1080p HD framed in 2.35:1 widescreen. The digital shot film translates well to HD with sharp visuals, good color and pleasing blacks. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with optional English subtitles. I thought the mix was pretty low, I had to crank it a bit more than I usually do.
The disc gets quite a few extras, starting off with an Audio Commentary with Writer/Actor/Director Erik Bloomquist, Writer/Producer/Editor Carson Bloomquist, Director of Photography Mike Magilnick; a 17-min Behind The Scenes Still Gallery; a150min Production Time Lapse; the 2-min Concept Trailer with Optional English Subtitles; 1-min Teaser Trailer; 2-min Theatrical Trailer; the 1-min Regal Mystery Movie Monday Intro; and a 4-min Blair and Harold Visit D.C. Other than the commentary track and the trailers the rest is just sort of disc filling fluff that did nothing for me.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with Writer/Actor/Director Erik Bloomquist, Writer/Producer/Editor
Carson Bloomquist, Director of Photography Mike Magilnick,
- Behind The Scenes Still Gallery (17:22)
- Production Time Lapse (14:35)
- Concept Trailer with Optional English Subtitles (2:14)
- Teaser Trailer (0:56)
- Theatrical Trailer (2:13)
- Regal Mystery Movie Monday Intro (0:55)
- Blair and Harold Visit D.C. (3:56)
But it!
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