32/50
In this supernatural winter epic set in the 19th century, a drunken applejack salesman must go from nothing to hero and become the greatest fur trapper in North America, 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 purchased all of the costumes online. After Watson the Beaver “passes out”; his mustache falls off & lands in the snow as he gets up. He wears it again in the next scene, despite walking away from it without picking it up. Referenced in Film Junk Podcast: Episode 940: Immaculate (2024). Jean Kayak and His Acme Applejack Written and produced by Wayne Tews, designed and co-produced by Karl Landwehr. This is a film I saw at the Nightmares Film Festival. It’s not a horror film, but I still wanted to write a review. I should say up front that this is not a movie I would normally enjoy. However, watching this with a crowd as the day neared midnight was a fun experience. Added to it is the theatrical tragedy of Ryland Brickson co-writer/star Cole Tews. I should also include; this was a first in Ohio. For this movie we have Jean Kayak (Tews) who has an orchid and makes hard cider. He is a drunkard who just loves to have fun. One day beavers come and destroy one of the large barrels that hold his cider. Because of this, everything falls apart and now it is winter. Jean is having no luck catching food and is struggling to survive. Jean then gets into the fur trade. He watches a bearded man commit murder. So much so that the guy who runs the station, Doug Mancheski, wants to marry his hairy daughter, Olivia Graves. Jean has an uphill battle to become a trapper and this will put him in conflict with the beavers in the area. They’ve created an epic dam that holds a lot more. So I was a little bit familiar with what I was going to get here having seen the previous Tews film called Lake Michigan Monster. This is in a similar vein. There’s CGI and background animation. These techniques are also used with the character movements and just to generally bring it to life. This takes a lot of time and I’m impressed with that. What helps is that we don’t really bother with the dialogue. This is presented as a silent film at times, we even get title cards. It also reminds me of cartoons where our characters didn’t speak. It feels cheap, but what’s happening is a lot more difficult than it looks. In keeping with this idea, they’re telling a narrative story without much dialogue. The things we see are repetitive. I’ll admit that as we neared the end I was exhausted and ready to go home. I don’t want to downplay this though, staying awake gets harder and harder every day as midnight approaches. I’ll say it anyway. This movie is made for a theater experience or for people to gather for drinks and just enjoy their time with it. I can see people hating on this. I’m telling you, as someone who loves serious, dark movies, this is a palette cleanser that if you roll with it, it’s a great time. I didn’t even mention that all the animals are just people in costumes. That makes it even better with the features we see. If you get a chance to see this in the settings I mentioned, definitely jump on it. My rating: 6 out of 10.