Big Break, which is having its World Premiere at this year’s Fantasia Film Festival, is a meta-textual hangout movie, and its resonance is largely contingent on whether you find Simple Town– the comedy troupe at the core– amusing enough to spend 90-minutes with. Ian Faria’s horror/comedy certainly nails the genre balance, but the sketch comedy stylings prove to be make-or-break.
As a certified unc (or so I’ve been told), Simple Town’s “cringecore” antics are precisely my jam, and the entirety of Big Break landed with me because of that. I found the non-sequiturs, the veiled hostility, and the seamless riffing among the core four charming before Samuel Lanier’s (who also co-stars) script veered into Josh Ruben territory. I mean that in the most complimentary terms, too. If you’ve enjoyed the College Humor alum’s transition into the horror space, or if you can’t wait to tell your friends why they need a Dropout TV subscription, Big Break will prove to be the biggest break of all for Simple Town.
Caroline Yost, Felipe Di Poi Tamargo, Sam Lanier, and Will Niedmann star as themselves of Simple Town fame in an alternative universe where the comedy troupe is no more, and only Sam has found subsequent success after their heyday of YouTube virality. That success is predicated on The Gummy Bear Movie, a clear parallel for Minions (or, worse, Netflix slop) that’s proven to be remarkably successful on screening. That’s perhaps the scariest part of the horror-comedy equation; there’s a world where I can see The Gummy Bear Movie dominating the zeitgeist.
Naturally, Sam is all famous pals and IV drips, but his forlorn friends have had less luck. Caro is eating dog food out of her car, Will is sporting a cool-guy mustache, and Felipe is… well, he’s dating a 19-year-old. They abscond to Sam’s vacation home deep in the woods for a mini reunion with the conspicuous goal of begging Sam for a role in the upcoming Gummy Bear sequel. That’s how the industry works, okay?
It’s largely self-deprecating, with the cast finding considerable mileage in poking fun at themselves and their desperation to tether themselves to Sam’s fame. Felipe can’t stop talking about Adobe Premiere (it’s also industry standard), and Caro goes to great lengths to pantomime passion for tutoring, and she’s definitely not living in her car.
The humor undergirds the entirety of Big Break, and within a few minutes, you’ll know whether it’s your taste or not. It doesn’t evolve so much as escalate, especially once the horror part seeps in. Contextually, there’s a serial killer on the loose in Sam’s area, and while I won’t say more, the threat of being serial-killed unearths long-gestating resentments and rivalries among the group.
Now, as someone irregularly online and thus unfamiliar with the Curry Barkers, Kane Parsons, or Simple Towns before their big, theatrical debut, I imagine there are preexisting fans who will cull considerably more from Big Break’s meta-angle and rapid-fire in-jokes, many of which, while successful, are likely funnier if you’re in on it with them. So, while it might be a better experience with familiarity, kudos to the cast and crew (which boasts big behind-the-scenes names like Richie Doyle and Ani Schroeter) for not conceding to that exclusively. Unfamiliar audiences are acclimated to the humor’s rhythm, and it’s got me eager to see what Simple Town is all about.
Big Break may not be the most earth-shattering horror-comedy this century. It doesn’t have the genre love of Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, nor does it have Josh Ruben’s deft hand that rendered Scare Me such a breakout success. The film is firmly within its own comfortable element. It imbues what would otherwise be another Simple Town video with a heaping of splatter movie context to give it some edge. It’s an excellent entry point, however, and for their first big-screen outing, here’s hoping Simple Town gets plenty more.
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