I'm not much of a horror fan, and I'm not the type to get obsessed over weird little indie movies. However, once in a while a weird little indie horror film comes along that is so original and so exactly to my tastes, that I have no choice but to sing its praises. So today, I invite you to behold the Canadian horror satire "Buffet Infinity," a horror film told entirely through chintzy local television commercials for businesses located in the fictional Westridge County, Alberta, plus a few local news broadcasts, and some sinister public service announcements.
90% of the effectiveness of the film, written and directed by Simon Glassman, is just getting the aesthetics right. I spent a lot of my childhood watching the local television stations, and especially the foreign language programming that would air these low budget ads for my very specific community, featuring the kind of people who would never be on television otherwise. Some were creative and well-produced enough to turn a few of the spokespeople and business owners into minor celebrities. Most, however, were just strange little curiosities that were very much of their time. And with the advent of the digital age and the great migration of viewers to the internet, I don't think I've seen ads like this in a decade. At least, not the kind featured in "Buffet Infinity" with the wonky video quality, the over-bright color schemes, chunky onscreen text, and directions to the location nearest you. "Buffet Infinity" was shot entirely in Edmonton, and most of the actors came from the local stand-up comedy scene. It does not surprise me at all that some of the fake ads are directly spoofing real ads for Edmonton businesses.
Adult Swim explored similar ground with some of their originals, like the infomercial spoof "Broomshakalaka," and the immortal sitcom-skewering "Too Many Cooks," which both combined old linear television ephemera with dissonant horror elements. "Tim and Eric" and "SCTV" sketches have also been cited as influences. In order to make "Buffet Infinity" feature length, however, it offers a much more involved story. We channel-surf through several rounds of ads for a shopping center near a worrisome sinkhole, gradually learni that the new buffet restaurant is evil, and responsible for a large number of disappearances in the area. Nearby businesses, like the rival sandwich shop run by Jennifer Joy Avery (Allison Bench), are systematically targeted with negative ads by Buffet Infinity, and eventually taken over. Other recurring characters include lawyer Mostley Rosin (Kevin Singh), promoting his firm's legal services, Ahmed Ahmed (as himself) offering deals at a nearby pawn shop, Captain Savings (Brandon Vanderwall) who wants to sell you a car, a man in a series of black and white self help ads (Donovan Workun), a woman (Clare Theobald) peddling insurance, and a science-fiction author, Reverence Langdon B. Hershey (Dino Primo), who seems to be running a cult.
You would think that sitting through ninety minutes of fake ads, no matter how well done, would get old quickly. However, "Buffet Infinity" uses the same techniques that real television ads do to keep the audience's attention, and the pleasant, lulling quality of the marketing pitches has a similar hypnotic effect. Even without the darker, lurking forces of the larger plot, the filmmakers capture the slightly off-putting nature of the fake smiles, exaggerated claims, and passive-aggressive attempts to engage with the viewers. Maybe that's why I didn't feel too bad about watching these television creatures become corrupted and overtaken by whatever evil force is controlling Buffet Infinity. The production values are so shoestring throughout that the horror frequently edges into camp anyhow.
As with most wonderfully ambitious microbudget indie films like this, "Buffet Infinity" is very uneven. I thought the first half was great, but once the plot took a turn toward more conventional horror, it started to come apart. It probably would have turned out better if Glassman had resisted the urge to give us an explanation of what was actually going on, and leave things more ambiguous. I'm still thoroughly impressed with what he accomplished, but I think "Buffet Infinity" will work best for those who already love weird and obscure films like this. Frankly, it doesn't get much weirder than this.
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