FOUNDERS DAY (2023)

Studio:   MPI Home Video
Director: Erik Bloomquist
Writer:   Erik Bloomquist, Carson Bloomquist
Producer: Erik Bloomquist, Carson Bloomquist, Adam Weppler
Stars:    Naomi Grace, Devin Druid, Andrew Stewart-Jones, Olivia Nikkanen, Emilia McCarthy, Tyler James White, Amy Hargreaves, Jayce Bartok, Catherine Curtin, William Russ

Review Score:

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Summary:

In the midst of a contentious local election, a small town unravels as a masked murderer embarks on a killing spree.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

With their hometown of Fairwood only days away from a contentious election between Harold Faulkner and incumbent mayor Blair Gladwell, Harold's estranged daughter Melissa accompanies her girlfriend Allison Chambers to the Bank Street movie theater where Allison used to work. Melissa remains outside among political protestors while Allison goes inside to retrieve a sentimental padlock she left behind. Allison has brief encounters with Melissa's brother Adam, who works at the theater, and with Melissa's ex-boyfriend Rob Donahue, who is now involved with Adam's ex Lilly, the current mayor's daughter.

With Allison preparing to leave town for college in Raleigh, she and Melissa go to a bridge where couples declare their love with initialed padlocks. There, Melissa is attacked by someone dressed in a red mask, powdered wig, and judge's robe. The attacker seemingly beats Melissa with a gavel before throwing her over the bridge. Allison flees back into town.

At the local high school the following day, Deputy Finn Miller interrupts a Founders Day lesson taught by respected teacher Mr. Len Jackson to pull Adam from class. No longer living at home due to disagreements with his father Harold's politics, Adam learns for the first time from Harold, accompanied by Adam's stepmother Nancy, that Melissa is missing. Meanwhile, police commissioner Judith Peterson questions Allison about the attack.

Mayor Blair Gladwell holds a city council meeting with her main advisor Oliver Hull over whether or not to go forward with Fairwood's traditional Founders Day celebration even though a killer may be on the loose. Blair makes the final decision to hold the festival, which draws the ire of Harold Faulkner for disrespecting his daughter's possible death.

Back at the high school, punk couple Tyler and Britt pull a prank on Allison by staging a fake murder attempt. Sympathizing with Allison because she shows a strong interest in his social studies course, Len gives Tyler and Britt detention.

Allison and Adam attend a party for movie theater employees where Lilly tries reconciling her broken relationship with Adam. After Allison and Adam leave, Rob jealously insults Lilly. Rob then storms out to a bar, but being underage, he is kicked out by Deputy Miller, who was at the bar having drinks with Len Jackson and Oliver Hull.

Tyler and Britt pull their fake murder prank on Lilly once she is alone in the theater. After Tyler and Britt leave, the real masked murderer slits Lilly's throat.

Adam sleeps over Allison's house. Adam confesses to Allison that he broke up with Lilly because his sister Melissa secretly saw Lilly making out with Rob in an alleyway.

When Harold comes to pick up his son in the morning, he chides Allison's father Thomas for not informing him where Adam was. Harold and his family have another tense encounter with Blair and Oliver when they go into town for Founders Day festivities.

At the same time as the celebration, Len hosts Saturday morning detention for Tyler and Britt. After Len exits his classroom, Tyler and Britt start to have sex on Len's desk, but the masked murderer kills them both.

Rob unexpectedly discovers Lilly's body in a dumpster. Rob immediately informs Deputy Miller and Commissioner Peterson, who force Blair and Oliver to shut down the Founders Day festival. Blair shrieks wildly upon seeing her daughter's mutilated body. Deputy Miller tries questioning Rob further, but Rob runs away, which kicks off a police manhunt for him.

Allison walks into Len Jackson's classroom to find Adam dressed in the killer's costume and writing cryptic messages on the chalkboard. Adam chases Allison while trying to offer an explanation. Allison runs outside to her father. Fearful for his daughter's life, Thomas impales Adam through his stomach with a piece of pointed wood. With his dying words, Adam says, "It wasn't supposed to happen like this."

Thinking he may be involved as a second murderer in addition to Adam, Commissioner Peterson questions Thomas with suspicion while Allison waits in Thomas's car. Having evaded capture, Rob gets into the car with Allison. Rob convinces Allison to sneak away together. After finishing with the commissioner, Thomas joins Deputy Miller to pursue Allison and Rob.

Concerned citizens assemble at Town Hall to discuss the possibility of multiple murderers. Out of her mind from grief and drunkenness, Blair proposes forming a vigilante mob to raze the town in search of the killer, which fosters more panic among confused townspeople who suddenly turn on the mayor.

Blair returns to her office where Harold heatedly confronts her with hard evidence of financial corruption. The masked killer interrupts to stab Blair to death with a campaign sign before repeatedly stabbing Harold to death, too. Commissioner Peterson walks in on the murders, so the killer also slaughters her.

Allison and Rob return to the bridge where Melissa disappeared to look for more clues. Deputy Miller arrives to frantically warn that Allison's father attacked him and she supposedly isn't safe. However, Miller mistakenly offers two accounts regarding what happened to Thomas since he was supposedly attacked. After he gets handcuffed to the bridge, Rob struggles with Miller over the deputy's service weapon, ultimately causing Miller to get shot in the stomach. Unsure if she can trust Rob, Allison leaves him handcuffed and rushes home.

At her house, Allison finds her father dressed as the killer under her bed, but he turns out to be bait so she can be attacked from behind. Once she regains consciousness, Allison wakes in restraints in front of the real killer, who unmasks herself as Melissa.

Through flashbacks, Melissa reveals how she and Adam staged her apparent attack on the bridge. Melissa goes on to explain how her and her brother's frustrations with their father as well as with the town drove them to murder, and Melissa was further able to influence Adam because of Lilly cheating on him. Melissa finishes by saying how she plans to make it look like Allison was the murderer all along and the siblings were framed.

After speaking to Melissa over the phone, Len Jackson arrives. Allison hears him admonishing Melissa for not sticking to his plan. Melissa gives Len a knife so he can get his hands dirty by killing Allison, but Len uses it to stab Melissa instead.

Melissa chases Allison downstairs in the commotion. Following a violent struggle, Allison stabs Melissa in her throat.

Len tries calming Allison by explaining how he manipulated Melissa and Adam into committing the murders so he could create a line of succession that allowed him to become the next mayor without an election, since he is the longest-serving councilmember. Oliver and Deputy Miller are also revealed to have been in on Len's plan, which involved the siblings killing other people so Blair and Harold's deaths wouldn't seem obvious. Len concludes by making an appeal to Allison that he will actually change Fairwood for the better as long as she doesn't implicate him to the police.

One year later, Len continues a successful term as mayor with Oliver as his advisor. Meanwhile, Allison follows in Len's footsteps by becoming the student president at her university.

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Review:

It's almost Founders Day in Fairwood, a sleepy town in the midst of a contentious mayoral race between incumbent Blair Gladwell and challenger Harold Faulkner. Harold's daughter Melissa can't stand dad's politics, so she's spending the evening with her girlfriend Allison Chambers on a quick trip to the movie theater where Allison used to work. There, Allison encounters Melissa's brother Adam as well as Melissa's ex Rob Donahue, the latter of whom now hooks up with Adam's ex Lilly. Lilly works at the theater too, but she's also the daughter of Mayor Gladwell, who has her hands full presiding over upcoming Founders Day festivities with her trusted advisor Oliver Hull and the rest of city council.

After picking up a sentimental padlock, Allison and Melissa proceed to a local bridge. That's where couples declare their love for each other by attaching initialed locks to the railing. With Allison on her way out of town to attend college, now seems like a prime time to prove what Melissa means to her.

The two teens aren't there long when Melissa is unexpectedly assaulted by a red-masked attacker in a judge's robe and powdered wig. Melissa takes a few vicious shots from a gavel before being thrown over the bridge into darkness. Allison immediately flees back into town.

Adam doesn't learn about his sister's disappearance until the next day. That's when Deputy Finn Miller interrupts a high school class taught by respected local Len Jackson to pull Adam out for a confab with Harold and his new wife Nancy. Allison's father Thomas gets called in too, because police commissioner Judith Peterson has questions for his daughter about Melissa's attack. Back in the classroom, punk girl Britt, who likes to pull heartless pranks with her boy toy Tyler, lays into Lilly about the revolving door that's been causing trouble for Lilly's dueling romances.

Including the masked killer, that's sixteen characters introduced so far, and "Founders Day" is only getting started. All of the above exposition gets delivered in the film's first 15 minutes, and there are still 90 more to go. Since I watched it at home, I had the luxury of pausing to write down names for the synopsis I just wrote. How someone who sees this in a theater or without a notepad can keep everyone and their relationships straight, I have no idea. And if you happen to come in a little late because your popcorn wasn't ready on time? Forget about following along.

Similar in setup to Eli Roth's "Thanksgiving" (review here), "Founders Day" makes its whodunit mystery a main focus as mutilated bodies continue cropping up around Fairwood. As far as such slashers go, however, I never cared much about solving the case. By the time the final twist was revealed, I realized I was never engaged enough to give the killer's identity a second thought. There were simply so many suspects, I wasn't motivated to expend the minimal mental energy to keep track of who was already dead, who was still alive, or who was possibly in play at various locations when the movie cut between concurrent scenes.

"Founders Day" also doesn't play totally fair. For instance, there's one point where the police commissioner pulls Allison's father Thomas into privacy for a follow-up question after an interrogation. Instead of hearing what they discuss, we stay with Allison as she's joined in a car by her girlfriend's ex Rob. When Thomas reemerges, we see Allison speed away after Rob says something to her that we also don't get to hear.

These threads don't work as red herrings because we're given no reason to wonder what could possibly be happening offscreen. Someone could speculate that maybe Thomas and the commissioner are in cahoots, Allison and Rob share a secret of some sort, or any one of them could be the killer. Yet why would anyone come to any of these conclusions when no onscreen events offer evidence hinting one way or another? What is an audience supposed to question when it is conspicuous editing acting suspicious, not so much the characters themselves?

Although the narrative never steps out of quicksand onto firm ground, "Founders Day" is one of the better-looking indie slashers you'll see in terms of production value. Various rooms, which are spread out across multiple locations, are decorated to look lived in, not like the plain white-walled homes usually seen on lower-level films. Sets are also lit by people who know proper places to put lights, which is proven by a colorful palette that doesn't have the telltale wash of a cheap digital transfer whose footage was too bright to begin with.

"Founders Day" achieves some of its impressive scope by employing a fair number of extras, too. Pure speculation, but I'd guess at least some of the non-speaking roles were staffed professionally, or else amateurs had ample time in hair and makeup chairs. From political protestors to concerned citizens in a chaotic Town Hall meeting, background actors don't look like the usual collection of friends and family members who happened to be available for a few hours that day.

On the larger topic of acting, "Founders Day" tries peppering proceedings with satire as well as slaughter, but uneven application results in an unbalanced tone. Between the commissioner swirling a lollipop before delivering hammy one-liners to the deputy weirdly aged to look older than he is, a couple of people play their parts like they're in an SNL skit, even when no one else around them behaves the same way. These cuts at comedy simply don't fit when 95% of the kill-filled film isn't played for laughs.

Whether it's the sharp cinematography or the cast members who take their scenes seriously, a lot of talent can be seen aching to break out within "Founders Day." It's just seen inconsistently, with equally inconsistent results that come down to direction that doesn't appear to be as in control as it should be.

The script is on the right track too, although it has even more distance to cover to get all the way where it needs to be. A solid third of the screenplay's pages could be pulled out for retooling, then put back to further polish the film. One more revision wouldn't be enough. But a pair of more experienced eyes could have pointed out in advance why many misdirects don't work, and would have ironed out unnecessary and unrewarding wrinkles that prevent "Founders Day" from being a real killer.

Review Score: 55

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