‘Big Break’ Review: Uproarious Horror/Comedy [Fantasia]

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?