Long Lost: Most intense game of Chubby Bunny (review)
By Devin Shea
Hot on the film festival circuit is a film from Erik Bloomquist called Long Lost and it proves that the internet is a creepy place.
“Chubby Bunny, bitch.”
One of the featured films at the brand new film festival, Witch City Horror Film Festival, that occurred right before Halloween was a film by Erik Bloomquist called Long Lost. It has been traveling the film circuit lately, so I knew I had to see it. The synopsis doesn’t give up much (and neither does the poster) so I truly didn’t know what I was getting into. Little did I know, I didn’t know what I was getting into pretty much the entire time and I mean that in the best of ways.
Image courtesy of Mainframe Pictures and Erik Bloomquist
Long Lost was written and directed by Erik Bloomquist, with writing assistance by Carson Bloomquist and Adam Weppler. It stars Weppler (The Cobblestone Corridor) as Seth, Nicholas Tucci (You’re Next) as Richard, and Catherine Corcoran (Terrifier) as Abby.
The gist of the movie is this: Seth gets invited to an isolated mansion by a long lost (get it) brother after his mother dies. Richard, the brother, invites Seth there to get to know him but it would seem that Richard and his over-sexed girlfriend, Abby, know almost everything about him and he never even knew he had a brother. What follows is one of the strangest weekends you could imagine.
Long Lost isn’t horror per say but it does have its intensely creepy moments. It stands firmly planted in the slow-burn thriller genre but has its little toesies creeping into comedy territory. I honestly wasn’t sure if I was supposed to despise Richard or if he was one of the funniest people alive. He’s like the worst frat boy at the party at one of those Ivy League schools. If Richard talking to you, he’s the worst person in the room, but objectively hilarious. The acting from Corcoran was kind of subtle. Tucci’s Richard was so big and out there that Abby was a nice balance of soft speaking and normalcy. Weppler’s Seth was naïve but relatively normal and how he acted is how most people would.
Image courtesy of Mainframe Pictures and Erik Bloomquist
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The first 20 minutes can feel slow for people who like to jump in on things immediately, but I implore those of you like that to hang in there because what I thought was going to be a slow ride the entire time, turned into what I can only equate as riding through the tunnel of love high on acid. You have no idea what’s going on, everything feels funny, you’re not sure what direction you’re headed anymore and there’s a ton of bare asses everywhere and you’re not sure why. I’m only guessing that’s what an acid trip is like. Richard has a proclivity for childish games and my favorite scene in the movie is an unnecessarily dramatic round of Chubby Bunny. You may want to avoid eating or drinking during this scene as I nearly choked laughing while watching it.
I have only one criticism of this film. There is a huge twist ending and it’s great. I loved it, but everything happens so quickly and then it’s over and I was left wishing we had just another ten minutes before the credits rolled to expand a little more. Other than that, the film is seamless to me. The video and audio quality is great, the acting is both uncomfortable and hilarious but in a great way and the story is interesting.
Next. Don Coscarelli on the film that got away. dark
If you are near a film festival featuring Long Lost, go see it. It isn’t like anything I’ve seen to date and it was really enjoyable. It’s a big recommend from me on this one.