The best midnight movies conjure a community experience, pleasing audiences who want to see reactions to the insanity onscreen. While many touchstones of the genre consist of notoriously strange and subversive visions that are primed for indie theaters — “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “The Room,” the works of David Lynch — the rise of home video, cable and, eventually, the darkest corners of the internet recontextualized fandom to include friends who want to introduce each other to increasingly odd stories, or simply work best after a bong hit or two.
It’s risky to predict a future midnight movie classic, but the Canadian indie “Buffet Infinity” seems too strange to fail. Simon Glassman wrote and directed this feature-length story, which consists entirely of local advertisements from a small Alberta town that start normally, but things quickly feel … off. In between familiar-feeling, low-budget ads for lawyers and pawn shops, quirky commercials for a new restaurant called Buffet Infinity start running. Soon enough, local business Jenny’s Sandwich Shop starts running ads that take aim at the newcomer’s low prices, and their operations seem to be increasingly competitive — until local news reports reveal that Jenny is now a missing person. Meanwhile, a sinkhole downtown starts growing, and a cult leader starts warning about the end of the world, and things progress from there.
“Buffet Infinity” scratches the itch of Millennials raised on the eeriness of found media and the late-night vibe of Adult Swim programming. As the veil between fiction and reality slips, helped on by the break-the-fourth-wall nature of local TV, new segments get increasingly claustrophobic and tense as the audience is drawn into this nightmare world.
My first viewing of “Buffet Infinity” was at a crowded screening at this year’s genre-focused Overlook Film Festival, and it allowed murmurs of recognition and ripples of laughter to snake through the crowd. But the film, which is now available on digital via Yellow Veil Pictures, feels equally primed for at-home viewing, where pauses can allow for discussion, a quick read of an easter egg buried in small print, or even the chance to fetch a cheeseburger that seems worthy of Buffet Infinity itself.
Watch the “Buffet Infinity” trailer below.
