Sean Parker
Indie films are kind of my jam. If you’ve read any of my work on this or any other site, there’s a good chance it was for an underdog movie made by passionate people. When it was announced that A Most Atrocious Thing would have its World Premiere at the Make Believe Film Festival, I read the description, smirked, and got a little excited. The film was made by a group of college kids for around five thousand dollars when they got bored during the pandemic and headed out to the woods. Analogously touted as an amalgamation of the “Please Don’t Destroy gang meets Troma,” there was no chance I was ever going to pass that up.
Set in the woodsy wilderness of “somewhere outside Colorado,” A Most Atrocious Thing follows a group of graduating college students as they celebrate the end of an era and the start of paying back their insurmountable college loans. Well, not all of them. Ben (Ben Oliphint) has been accepted into NYU grad school, and that would cause worry with his sensitive best friend Dylan (Dylan DeVol) if he knew how to tell him. After a hunting excursion provides enough venison from a deer that refuses to die, the boys start to get sick and eventually turn into feral, flesh-craving zombies.
Influences abound from the start of A Most Atrocious Thing, from Zombeavers to Cabin Fever and Evil Dead, marking a treasure trove of reference and parody that horror lovers will surely enjoy. There are also some interesting song choices, like a synth-laden version of Vince Guaraldi’s Charlie Brown Theme over the credits that provide an Angelo Badalamenti vibe, as if viewers are headed into the heart of a puerile Twin Peaks. Meanwhile, the Let’s Twist Again dance remix stumped my Shazam, but that’s headed to my summer mix if I ever find it.
Adding, or subtracting, depending on how you feel about it, are the extra trimmings of Cheech and Chong-styled stoner comedy from two friends (Max Shepardson, Bryan Taira) who oversleep, creating a silly road-trip-inspired B-story along the way.
For such a small production, the audio is excellent. There are times, particularly in the high ceiling environment of the cabin or the airy open spaces of the woods, where capturing dialogue was probably a nightmare. The sound team does an amazing job making A Most Atrocious Thing sound like a larger scare production and deserves a lot of recognition, as do all of the post-production units who have made the film look this good. I’m sure a few people will nitpick the momentary use of computer-generated effects, but considering the end result on the budget, it’s an arbitrary argument.
And speaking of special effects, we need to talk about the deer puppetry. The film features a herd of psychotic red-eyed deer, which is clearly just one animatronic puppet filling multiple roles. The audience is introduced to this creature creation right at the film’s start, in a very matter-of-fact style similar to Pierce Berolzheimer’s Crabs! or Jonathan King’s Black Sheep. The proceeding setup of A Most Atrocious Thing’s satirical cold open, where a hunter thinks he’ll earn his girlfriend back by presenting her with a murdered deer carcass, provides the audience with a quick indication of the pure fun that follows, knowing the movie is not going to take itself seriously.
There aren’t really any drawbacks to the film, other than it’s a bit overly bromantic. But it’s touchingly bromantic if that helps. The movie has no women onscreen, but it’s well-arranged, providing the circumstances of a guys weekend. If you’ve ever seen the Danny Dyer led Doghouse, you know how misogynistic and toxic a setup like this can go, but directors Christian Hurley and Ben Oliphint aren’t aiming for that. If anything, its major theme concerns the toxicity of passive aggression. Just say what you need to say, bro. This undoubtedly close-knit group of friends plays on their personal insecurities, including the exploration (and exploitation) of their interpersonal camaraderie. If the Broken Lizard guys made a zombie deer movie, it would look something like this.
The result is a clever, raucous, and entertaining piece of soon-to-be cult cinema, filled with fresh and funny dialogue that will likely require multiple watches to catch everything because, most of the time, you’re laughing too hard to hear the next line. Hell, I almost did a spit-take at the mockery of the absurd name of the cannabis strain one character was smoking. A Most Atrocious Thing is the type of film to see with a reactive audience. This is the type of movie where you grab a group of friends and a six-pack and have a good time, or see it in a theater (if you can) to laugh and scream along with strangers—either way.
A Most Atrocious Thing held its World Premiere on Saturday, March 23, as part of the Make Believe Seattle Film Festival. Running through March 26, tickets to other Make Believe events can be found on their website.
