What ensues is a self-destructive course in self-mutilation and a futile fight to ward off his inner demons, as he eventually goes bonkers. He tries black magic to try to discover a path to follow that will enrich him with gold.
He has run away from a civilization he can’t adjust to, and from a book on magic turns to chemistry experiments and then to magic rituals to eventually summon the Devil. Sean ( Ty Hickson) is a haunted angry young black adult who lives in isolation somewhere in the Michigan woods in a trailer, who is pursuing alchemy through amateur experiments. Grand Rapids based auteur Joel Potrykus (“Buzzard”/”Ape”) creates what may be called a different kind of horror film, one that explores the dregs of society and how the lines of reality and fantasy can be blurred when losing track of reality. Corkin, Ashley Young, Joel Potrykus Oscilloscope Laboratories 2016) Minnick editor: Joel Potryku music: Tim DeWit, Jamie Grefe, Brian Harding, Andrew Mille cast: Ty Hickson (Sean), Amari Cheatom (Cortez) Runtime: 82 MPAA Rating: NR producers: Bryan Reisberg, Andrew D. Some diverse soundtracked music reflecting Minor Threat T-shirt-wearing Sean’s eclectic taste (from Beethoven to Detroit rapper Esham and Midwest punk popsters Smoking Popes) adds considerable appeal.(director/writer: Joel Potrykus cinematographer: Adam J. Largely shot in the cramped trailer, the package is nothing if not modest, yet always assured. But while “The Alchemist Cookbook” certainly won’t be for everyone, it will surely delight and surprise those who can grok its idiosyncratic content. (Muddying that question further are eventual makeup mutation effects by Jeffery Husselman and Daniel Falicki.)įans of absurdist indie comedies who find themselves watching a quasi-horror pic are likely to be happier than horror fans who find themselves watching an absurdist indie comedy with a demon in it. It’s left to viewers to decide whether Sean’s flirtation with black magic is the cause or just another effect of his mental-health downfall.
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Of course, it could also be that Sean is simply mad from having gone off his meds - he’s very upset earlier when Cortez appears to have forgotten a prescription-pill refill.Ĭhaptered progress proceeds in a series of short sequences that sometimes have an improvisational feel in terms of dialogue and physical business, but never feel aimless. Their second encounter here ends badly, presaging a drastic downturn in the hero’s fortunes in which terror, violence and Belial himself seize control. Yet he seems sullen and withdrawn by comparison when his friend Cortez (a hilarious Amari Cheatom) arrives, bearing needed supplies but also bringing more outside scrutiny than Sean wants at present. In Hickson’s irresistible performance, Sean is an extrovert in an introvert’s hermit-like circumstances, one who sometimes jumps up and down on a fallen tree trunk for the sheer fun of it. Of course, it might also summon up an ancient demon whose subterranean bellows can occasionally be heard echoing through the forest, and who doubtless will be more trouble than Sean is equipped to handle.įor the time being, however, he’s giddy about his prospects, despite having only a slate-gray cat named Kaspar as an audience. It involves a chemistry set, a blowtorch, a gas mask, wild-animal traps, Latin incantations and other tools by which he apparently hopes to supernaturally generate wealth.
Though we have zero idea how exactly he wound up here, Sean (Ty Hickson, “Gimme the Loot”) seems to know just what he’s doing in the backwoods of West Michigan’s Allegan County. It’s certain to expand the writer-director’s audience from his more reality-tethered black comedy “Buzzard,” which also premiered in SXSW’s Visions program two years earlier.
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Hardly a conventional horror movie - though it would match up very nicely on a double bill with “The Witch,” or “The Blair Witch Project” for that matter - and far from scary (save for its protagonist), this unclassifiable miniature involving a man in a trailer in the woods trying to contact the Dark Lord is as funny and distinctive as it is near-plotless.
If you only see two American indie features co-starring Satan this year, one should obviously be “The Witch.” The other almost certainly will turn out to be “ The Alchemist Cookbook,” the latest micro-budget effort from Grand Rapids, Mich., auteur Joel Potrykus.
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