From Jeremy Kibler

There’s never been a holiday slasher set around a small town’s tricentennial celebration. Writer-director-editor Erik Bloomquist and brother/co-writer/co-editor Carson Bloomquist (She Came from the Woods) take care of that with Founders Day, a political slasher flick with a sizable ensemble. After the very fun, ‘90s-inspired Thanksgiving, it must have been wishful thinking that this could have been the next entry in a new slasher boom. Alas, the result is an also-ran with little to recommend it outside of a few gnarly kills.

Leading up to a heated mayoral election, the New England town of Fairwood is rocked by the overnight disappearance of teenager Melissa (Olivia Nikkanen), the daughter of change-promoting political candidate Harold Faulkner (Jayce Bartok). That night, Melissa’s girlfriend, Allison (Naomi Grace), was about to leave town for North Carolina before witnessing Melissa being attacked on a bridge by a masked killer in a powdered wig and wielding a double-edged gavel.

Meanwhile, incumbent Mayor Blair Gladwell (Amy Hargreaves) is running for re-election against Faulkner and trying to keep Fairwood alert but encourage them to make the right choice. Faulker’s son Adam (Devin Druid) also manages the local movie theater, where Allison used to work, and has been recently jilted by Lilly Gladwell (Emilia McCarthy), the mayor’s daughter, who’s now seeing a Billy Loomis-type bad boy (Tyler James White). Finally, high school government teacher Mr. Jackson (William Russ aka Cory and Eric Matthews’ dad) is there for everyone but remains neutral. With a killer out there, both parties’ campaigns are on the line and the body count is just beginning.

First, the good. Founders Day is a small production, well-shot and solidly assembled. The killer’s mask itself is effectively creepy. A kill in a movie theater is well-staged and nasty, and you can’t wait to see the worst, most troublemaking couple, Tyler (Dylan Slade) and Britt (Kate Edmonds), get dispatched after they foolishly decide to have sex in high school detention. The murderous use of a campaign sign is also wickedly amusing.

The bad? Nearly everything else. The Bloomquist brothers’ script actually seems concerned about the characters, but it’s so overcrowded with teenage romances and other tumultuous dynamics that it can’t really balance them all and make us care enough about a single one. The performances—oh, the performances—either consist of soapy, lip-quivering or shouty scenery-chewing. Sure, the hypocrisy of politics is being satirized here and laid on with a gavel, but that’s hardly a pass for a scene with the most overbaked drunk acting in recent memory. 

As lead Allison, Naomi Grace constantly seems to look like she has an upset stomach or in a state of confusion when she’s conveying grief and fear. Jayce Bartok and Amy Hargreaves (who’s been terrific before in other projects) go so broad as opposing candidates but could have withstood being reined in just a tad, and Catherine Curtin’s candy-eating Commissioner Peterson seems to belong in a completely different movie. 

Unafraid to let the red stuff gush within a corrupt political system, Founders Day has the right idea, but it’s all so amateurish and clearly not by design. When the killer’s identity is thought to be revealed abruptly, the proceedings manage to get even more ridiculous (the flashback dummy!) and increasingly convoluted from there. There is a little amusement in hearing our slash-happy culprit get a little antsy, “Who cares? Let’s go! No waiting, no monologuing!” Perhaps more of that sly self-awareness may have given Founders Day less of a campy leaning. It’d be exciting to elect another annual holiday slasher, but this is just not one of those times.

Rating: 2/5

Founders Day hits theaters on January 19, 2024.

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