{"id":48915,"date":"2025-07-29T14:34:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T18:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=48915"},"modified":"2025-07-29T14:34:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T18:34:12","slug":"buffet-infinity-fantasia-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/29\/buffet-infinity-fantasia-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Buffet Infinity [Fantasia 2025]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The downfall of a Canadian town is detailed with Lovecraftian comic-absurdity through faux TV programs and commercials in writer-director Simon Glassman\u2019s Buffet Infinity, presented as part of the Fantasia International Film Festival.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Yes. Yes. Yes. Buffet Infinity is 100% up my alley. It\u2019s a film of over-the-top, hilarious, yet uncomfortable, horror comic-absurdism. It\u2019s a niche that won\u2019t appeal to everyone. But for those who say \u201cyes!\u201d to the premise, it\u2019ll land in the most perfect ways.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That premise and niche? The viewer is watching local broadcasts over a few months in a small Canadian town as it descends into a Lovecraftian darkness and madness, with the story unfolding in a series of commercials, PSAs, news reports, public access, and similar content.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a big fan of \u201cfound footage.\u201d Not the horror genre, okay, I like that subgenre just fine, but the other meaning: strange media found on old VHS tapes, public access oddities, weirdos across the internet; the type one thinks, \u201cwho is this for? Some random dude\u2019s exercise routine or failed stunt show? Who would buy this? These often bizarre artifacts are something I love to watch. Mostly through The Found Footage Festival and Everything is Terrible YouTube shows. These slices of unintentional absurdity are often hilarious, wonderfully strange, and delightfully endearing. It\u2019s these that Buffet Infinity delves into, using the unique method to tell its story.\u00a0 I love absurdism, media where the rules of the weird world don\u2019t quite work and break down as the story continues. And horror is my genre of choice, especially with cheekiness. Buffet Infinity is a beautiful mix of all these influences. So, yes, it was made for me; even if writer-director Simon Glassman didn\u2019t know that when he set out to make it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For a quick and easy comparison of how Buffet Infinity works, think of a 100-minute version of [adult swim]\u2019s Too Many Cooks or the short film Great Choice (look it up), which presents the familiar, cracks it open, and delves into the uncomfortable, yet strangely familiar, underbelly of the program. Or VHYes, a similar setup that was pure comedy instead of mixing the concept with an unknowable horror. It\u2019s a TV version of the Welcome to Nightvale radio station.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The verisimilitude of the methods is tantamount; a real world needs to be built before it\u2019s broken.\u00a0 At the start, it could be ripped directly from a standard TV channel surf. Commercials for a pawn shop and a used car dealership have poorly acted sketches and characters. An insurance company is shilled by a woman with a weird life. A sandwich shop owner hawks her special sauce. An attorney is a little too aggressive. A culty church fills public access airwaves with its messaging. But wait! There\u2019s more! But I won\u2019t tell. But it\u2019s perfectly presented. The soft, grainy look, and the acting is spot-on to the local commercial atrocious line-readings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the center is the titular Buffet Infinity. The new business in town. it might be up to no good. It starts with a funny, one-upping rivalry between the sandwich shop, but it\u2019s not long before the unknowable terror looks to other businesses and the town itself as the mundane becomes macabre. The restaurant is creepily expanding and might be the cause of the rash of disappearances, the sinkhole, or that strange noise everyone is hearing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span>Glassman has an incredible skill in setting micro-creations. While there are a few one-offs, most of the story is presented through the repeated programs, building off one another in a frenzy. It\u2019s a WarioWare method of storytelling: 10 to 30 second bumps of cascading absurdity. It\u2019s a skill to jump into the next shift, reestablish location, what changes have occurred since the last visit, meld in what the other spots have told, and move the story forward by inches. The rapid-fire method builds a beat and flow, with the little bites adding up to a satisfying meal.\u00a0 At Buffet Infinity, of course. Why would you eat anywhere else? Just park out front.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The cracks in the town and residents are immediately apparent, while the commercials start \u201cnormal,\u201d immediately the air of \u201csomething isn\u2019t right\u201d pervades.\u00a0 It\u2019s a cursed media. It\u2019s a great joy watching the sanity be etched away as the story and Buffet Infinity expand. I had concerns that it couldn\u2019t sustain, especially how quickly it progressed, but it does so splendidly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not hiding how much Buffet Infinity worked on me.\u00a0 The method of short TV moments. The hilarious absurdity. The overall story of otherworldly Lovecraftian shifts. It\u2019s all perfectly put together with astounding editing skill and timing. Buffet Infinity is a masterwork of insanity, gleefully reaching the highest reaches of absurd comic-cosmic-horror.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Buffet Infinity is presented as part of the 29th Fantasia International Film Festival, running from July 16th through August 3rd, 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The downfall of a Canadian town is detailed with Lovecraftian comic-absurdity through faux TV programs and commercials in writer-director Simon Glassman\u2019s Buffet Infinity, presented as part of the Fantasia International Film Festival.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2497,1284,12],"tags":[219,1749,477],"class_list":["post-48915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasia-fest","category-festivalsevents","category-movie-reviews","tag-comedy","tag-fantasia","tag-horror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48919,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48915\/revisions\/48919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}