Fantasia Festival Review: BIG BREAK Delivers Laughs, Thrills & Kills
There’s plenty of fun to be had with Big Break, the new comedy-horror which has its debut at the Fantasia International Film Festival. This is a loose and relaxed genre effort from New York based comedy troupe, Simple Town and it sees a group of friends reconnect after one of them goes off to have a huge success in Hollywood. It’s a metatextual flick that sees the Simple Town folks play heightened versions of themselves.
Directed by Ian Faria and written by Sam Lanier, Big Break sees Caroline (Caro Yost), Felipe (Felipe Di Poi) and Will (Will Niedmann) catch up with their old friend Sam (Lanier) for a weekend at his new country house in upstate New York. However, there’s a killer on the loose and soon the friends are trying to survive the night, while also trying to score a part in Sam’s next movie.
What makes Big Break work is the performances. The established relationship of the actors helps sell their long friendship and this comes across on screen. The bickering and the jokes between them feels real and you’re invested in their hopes and fears as they try to grab onto the last rung of Sam’s ladder to success before he pulls it up. In fact, at times it seems that the slasher aspect feels a little inconsequential as we get to hang out with the friends on a drunken night in a big empty house. The actors aren’t afraid to come across petulant and self-centred, but they also manage to keep you rooting for them – which is no easy feat. Now, this is not to belittle the unexpected twists and thrills on display here as some of the violence comes across punchy and at times pretty brutal. Comedy and horror have always been bedfellows and Faria knows how to make them work side by side.
For all it gets right, Big Break does lose some focus in the last act. Once the friends escape the confines of the house, the claustrophobic tension dissipates and things slow down as they flail around in the darkness looking for a way to escape killer. Shaving off ten minutes or so might have helped with this, but it’s not enough to kill the charge of the film. There’s also a nice little sting in the tale though which offers up a Tales From The Crypt style ending to the whole thing.
An entertaining and fresh slasher flick, Big Break has all the elements of a festival hit – and it’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser with the right audience.
You can find out much more – and see the whole line-up on the official website for the 2026 incarnation of the the Fantasia International Film Festival.
I’ll be posting up a slew of reviews – so keep checking Movies In Focus to see what I have to say about this very exciting line-up.
