34/43
In this 19th century, supernatural winter epic, a drunken salesman must become a hero and become the greatest fur trapper in North America by defeating hundreds of beavers. The film’s estimated budget was around $150,000. Director Mike Cheslik estimated that the mascot costumes cost around $10,000, and the crew bought all of the costumes online. After Watson’s Beaver “faints”; his mustache falls off & falls into the snow and stands up. In the next scene, he wears it again, despite walking away without picking it up. Link to Movie Junk Podcast: Episode 940: Innocent (2024). Jean Kayak and His Acme Applejack Written and produced by Wayne TewsEngineered and co-produced by Karl Landwehr. I saw it at the Nightmare Film Festival. This doesn’t fall into the horror category, but I still wanted to write a review. I’d like to say up front that this is not a movie I usually enjoy. However, watching this with a crowd as the day approached midnight was a fun experience. Adding to it is the antics of co-writer/star Ryland Brickson’s Cole Tews in the theater. I should also include; This was the premiere in Ohio. For this film, we have Jean Kayak (Tews), who has an orchid farm and makes hard apple cider. He’s a drunkard who just loves to have fun. One day, beavers come and ruin one of the large barrels that his cider is stored in. As a result, everything falls apart and it’s winter now. Jean is having trouble catching food and is struggling to survive. Then Jean starts trading furs. He watches a bearded man kill. So much so that the guy running the post, Doug Mancheski, wants him to marry his daughter, who is a furrier, Olivia Graves. Jean fights his way up a hill to become a trap, and as a result, he’s going to face the beavers in the area. They’ve built an epic dam that can hold a lot more. So, having seen Tews’ previous film, The Lake Michigan Monster, I was a little familiar with what I was going to get here. It’s similar. There’s CGI and animation for the backgrounds. These techniques are also used to do the character movements and generally animate it. It takes a long time and I’m impressed. It helps that we don’t really interfere with the dialogue. It’s presented as a silent film at times, we even get title cards. It’s also reminiscent of the cartoons where our characters didn’t speak. It sounds cheap, but it’s a lot harder than it sounds. In executing on this idea, they tell a narrative story without using a lot of dialogue. The things we see are repetitive. I’ll admit that by the end I was exhausted and ready to go home. I don’t want to downplay it though, because it gets harder and harder to stay awake every day the closer you get to midnight. I will say it though. This movie is made to enjoy at the theater or meet people for drinks and just hang out with them. I can see people hating it. I’m telling you, as a serious and dark movie lover, this is a pallet cleaner that you’ll have a great time just by riding through. I didn’t even mention that all the animals are just people in costumes. That makes it even better with the antics we see. If you get a chance to see it in the settings I mentioned, definitely go for this one. My rating: 6 out of 10.