We are dropped in to the middle of "Alchemist", and the early scenes leave us with some questions – who is this man and what is he up to? We quickly pick up on his independent, punk rock mentality. Perhaps Potrykus is following a similar rise to fame as Linklater: Allegedly, this is the first time Potrykus has not used an HDSLR or Super 8 camera to shoot his film, and the film quality is noticeably improved from earlier work.
In my review for "Buzzard", I noted a connection to Richard Linklater's early work (particularly "Slacker"). His last feature, "Buzzard", really struck a nerve with me, and I feel a sense of pride that an upper Midwest filmmaker is making a go of it. When I saw that Joel Potrykus was the film's writer-director, I was immediately on board.
at age five, she's too smart to believe most of what he says.Suffering from delusions of fortune, a young hermit (Ty Hickson, GIMME THE LOOT) hides out in the forest hoping to crack an ancient mystery, but pays a price for his mania. When Mike's not writing or watching movies, you can find him reading to his little girl, or doing science experiments with her, or trying to convince her that the term "chicken butt" comes from people putting chicken nuggets down their underwear. Film Thrills marks his attempt to take things up a notch, expand his viewing and writing horizons and to entertain and engage his audience while doing so. Since 2009 Mike has written about independent horror, science fiction, cult and thrillers through his own blog All Things Horror along with various other spots on the web. While it would have made for a better film to have a plot on par with the performer, it’s still a fascinating look at mental illness mixed with small amounts of the supernatural. It’s a joy to watch an actor get so uninhibited in his role.
The Alchemist Cookbook is worth a watch for Hickson’s performance. The film never answers the question why Sean was contacting the demon or what he hoped to accomplish, focusing only on the deterioration of his mental health. I found myself nodding off a couple times towards the end before Hicson would pull me back in. While Potrykus offers up a handful of tense moments, including a bonfire chat between Sean and a pissed off demon wearing his cousin’s skin, these moments are too few and far between. Aside from brief visits from Sean’s fast talking, profanity spitting cousin Cortez (Amari Cheatomin a bit of comic relief) there’s no one for Sean to play off of. There’s not much going on in the film, and despite a trim 80 minute runtime, it seems to drag on too often. While Hickson’s performance is captivating, the story, or lack thereof is weighed down by inertia. Potrykus adds subtle touches in his set design, making the already cramped trailer seem all the more claustrophobic as trash begins to cover every surface the longer Sean goes without his stabilizing medication. What’s on the surface though is a distorted version of the man, like something filtered through a funhouse mirror or nightmare. The laughing, dancing, cat loving guy is still there, bubbling under the skin. Sean’s mental instability isn’t marked by a complete transformation of character. Hickson lends his character’s descent into madness a sense of twitchy, bug eyed grace. Clad in his omnipresent Minor Threat teeshirt, and bouncing around the trailer to punk blasts while mowing down Doritos by the bagful, Hickson wastes no time allowing the audience to get to know and like Sean, making his descent into madness all the more difficult to watch.
On the plus side of the ledger, Hickson gives a remarkable performance as Sean. As he spends more time alone and as his medication supply dwindles then evaporates, Sean’s state of mind rapidly begins to disintegrate. Isolated from the world with the exception of his beloved cat Cass, Sean spends his night cooking up batches of chemicals in order to communicate with demonic entities. Sean (Ty Hickson) has removed himself from the inner city, holing up in the middle of the woods in his uncle’s deserted trailer. Director Joel Potrykus’ follows up his black comedy Buzzard with another solid effort that examines paranoia, mental illness and the occult in the subdued but effective The Alchemist Cookbook. External monsters and threats make way for the terrors that lurk inside our own minds. Bombast and over the top splatter has given way to smarter, cerebral, character examinations and more personal stories.
There’s been a running trend in the more notable indie horror the past few years.