‘Buffet Infinity’ Review: A One-of-a-Kind Horror Masterpiece That Will Have You Asking For Seconds
Buffet Infinity is innovative horror cinema that uses public-access channel surfing to convey a cosmic apocalypse unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
“Are you ready for what’s coming?”
Horror is a genre that’s perpetually innovating and tapping into nonexistent subgenres and then making them mainstream. That being said, it’s still rare to genuinely see something truly original that’s never been done before. It’s scary to leave the comfort of conformity and structure, but the films that are willing to ignore these guidelines are the ones that have the potential to really be special.
Simon Glassman’s Buffet Infinity is a daring, bold experiment that’s absolutely not for everyone. There is no doubt going to be many people who are left unimpressed with Glassman’s avant-garde debut feature film. Buffet Infinity admittedly requires some trust from its audience. However, it’s an experience that absolutely pays off and becomes a one-of-a-kind experimental horror film. Buffet Infinity presents a completely new way to tell a horror story that’s ambitious, alarming, and existential.
Buffet Infinity tells the story of Westridge County, a Canadian suburb that’s caught in the middle of a cosmic apocalypse that’s the result of cults, human experiments, and a terrifying turf war between two restaurants. What’s so fascinating about Buffet Infinity is that it meticulously presents this story entirely through public-access channel surfing. Chaotic ads operate as a seamless, post-modern satire of consumerism, but also slowly, surely begin to reveal a grander story about a community under supernatural siege. Glassman’s formula for Buffet Infinity isn’t unprecedented. It draws heavy inspiration to the anarchic presentation style of the iconic Canadian sketch comedy series, SCTV, but it’s never been done before with horror, even though it’s such a natural fit for all-encompassing cosmic terror.
A lot of Buffet Infinity’s success relies on how thoroughly it commits to the bit. Much of the film’s enjoyment comes from the viewer’s familiarity and affinity towards public access television’s unpolished nature. Buffet Infinity uses an onslaught of disparate, unrelated commercials as an inescapable purgatory that washes over the viewer and traps them in creeping cosmic horror. It perfectly nails the absurdity of public access programming and late-night ads, which are then pushed to ludicrous extremes.
What Buffet Infinity accomplishes is a difficult tightrope walk that risks trying the audience’s patience and being too obtuse, but those who fall for its aesthetic will absolutely be in love with what’s going on here. Buffet Infinity is akin to some Adult Swim special or infomercial that would air at 3 AM. It’s particularly reminiscent of the works of Alan Resnick and Casper Kelly, where a seemingly simple idea becomes something much more insidious once it’s sat with a little longer and its layers get pulled back. Buffet Infinity is honestly the closest thing possible to a Welcome to Nightvale adaptation. It’s a sublime representation of the podcast’s surreal Lovecraftian atmosphere that expresses the same free-floating chaos.
There’s a real art to how Buffet Infinity gets so much mileage out of the power of repetition. These recurring ads, characters, and slogans highlight how something can be normal and innocuous the first and second time, only to morph into something increasingly foreboding. Buffet Infinity also uses the artifice of television as a tool that’s both reassuring and disarming. Mundane, familiar visuals are interrupted by TV static and audio glitches that are weaponized to amplify Westbridge’s growing unease and darkness. This local programming’s disturbing descent reaches an intense fever pitch by the film’s end.
By the end of Buffet Infinity, it really feels like you’re watching a haunted tape and that you’ve stumbled upon something dark that you shouldn’t be watching. Buffet Infinity does a lot with a little and it features inspired, unnerving, creepypasta-coded concepts and creatures that push Glassman’s film beyond its initial premise. The finale feels like a haunting techno nightmare that’s the type of spectacle you’d get if David Lynch directed a Black Mirror episode.
So much of Buffet Infinity works on vibes, yet one major hurdle that it sometimes struggles to overcome is its lack of a protagonist in a conventional sense. Buffet Infinity includes recurring figures and personalities, all of whom experience what technically qualify as story arcs. The film assembles an accomplished ensemble of actors (Kevin Singh, Claire Theobald, Donovan Workun, Allison Bench) who all look like they crawled right out of a Tim and Eric sketch.
Most importantly, there’s a proper sense of empathy that’s felt for these recurring victims by the film’s end, which is no small feat and a testament to how well the film’s concept is weaponized. They’re not just ludicrous punchlines. Buffet Infinity finds the perfect length for this experiment without ever diluting its premise or feeling gratuitous. There’s actually a remarkable degree of restraint when it comes to putting this finished film together from what was presumably hours upon hours of supporting footage.
Buffet Infinity is destined to be one of the most polarizing horror films of the year, but a movie that absolutely deserves to be seen all the same. There are such daring and innovative things being done in Buffet Infinity that it’d still be an exciting, important experience even if it were a disaster that failed to fit its pieces together. Instead, Buffet Infinity is hilarious, harrowing, and one of the most effective depictions of surreal horror and the crumbling of a universe that I’ve ever seen. It will be very interesting to see what Glassman does next and if he continues to dabble in structurally irregular territory or if Buffet Infinity will become a one-off anomaly. Regardless of whatever angle Glassman chooses to take, Buffet Infinity is a near-perfect horror film that will leave its audience hungry for seconds.
Buffet Infinity is out on VOD platforms tomorrow.
'Buffet Infinity' Review: A One-Of-A-Kind Horror Masterpiece That Will Have You Asking For Seconds
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Buffet Infinity
Summary
Buffet Infinity is innovative horror cinema that uses public access channel surfing to convey a cosmic apocalypse that’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen.