This year’s Fantasia International Film Festival included the world premiere of a truly one-of-the-kind film, Buffet Infinity. Written and directed by Simon Glassman, making his feature film debut, this film uses a unique format to tell a cosmic horror story. Through commercials and news bulletins, the film depicts a new buffet restaurant with mysterious business practices as it battles with other local business, a religious group, and the entire town.

Over the years, there have been great horror films that use the “recorded from TV” format. Typically, the format consists of a recorded show intercut with commercials. Buffet Infinity does something a bit different. While there are bits of the local news show, this film is almost entirely made up of commercials. After the new local buffet opens and starts advertising, strange things start to happen. At first it’s just increasingly competitive commercials between “Buffet Infinity” and the neighboring restaurant, “Jenny’s Sandwich Shop.” However, things get more and more strange as a mysterious sinkhole appears in the strip mall parking lot, people start disappearing, and an unsettling humming noise seems to be impacting the entire town. As this goes on, the buffet keeps expanding, despite no one ever seeing a single employee on staff. Something is not right about the new buffet, and the only people trying to warn the townspeople are one odd reverend/author and the religious group putting warning adds on TV. It’s such an innovative way to tell the story, delivering laughs and intrigue along with increasing horrors. There are aspects of the ending that feel a bit incomplete, leaving holes in the lore, but with the formatting it would be difficult to dive much deeper.

Because most of the commercials are the kind of low-budget, cheesy, self-made commercials especially common in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, the performances of Buffet Infinity are intentionally silly. Often times the acting is just downright bad, but it’s an intentional choice by the filmmakers. This also helps to add a lot of the humor. Whether delivering deadpan lines or trying to rap about your business, every performance helps add a sense of absurdity to the film. Some of the most memorable performances come from Ahmed Ahmed, Kevin Singh, and Allison Bench. Each of these individuals are making their acting debut in the film, which adds to the authenticity as they represent local business owner just trying to get their names out there.

The format of Buffet Infinity is almost like a found footage film. It has the analog appearance of a VHS tape someone used to record the commercials from TV, complete with abrupt cuts, glitches, and tracking. With how low budget the commercials are meant to be, the costume design, production design, and makeup looks appropriately bad. There is some variability in the quality of the commercials, especially as the buffet’s commercials get better and better by learning from competitors. That being said, the buffet commercials and the news reports sometimes look like the only variation in quality compared to most of the other commercials. Since it does focus on local businesses this might make sense, but some might wish for more visual variety. The climax includes a combination of CGI, which ranges from cheesy to decent, and a bit of practical effects sure to shock audiences, as it tickles the funny bone.

Buffet Infinity is a quirky, cosmic horror comedy oozing with analog nostalgia. Glassman has found a way to reinvigorate the VHS style found footage film. Telling a story almost entirely through commercials is a risky move, and for the most part, it pays off. It’s also risky to cast the film with a number of actors who have never been on screen before, but it certainly adds to the authenticity of the very local commercials. Buffet Infinity is so unconventional it likely won’t appeal to all audiences, but many will be charmed by the low-res camp. This is a film that has to be seen to be believed.

OVERALL RATING: 7/10