This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, films like this one wouldn’t exist.

Directed by Erik Bloomquist. Written by Erik and Carson Bloomquist.

Every holiday deserves a horror that can be watched annually to mark the occasion, and Founders Day (2023) does just that for a date less well-known than Halloween or Friday the 13th. 

Transporting audiences right back to the heyday of slashers, director Bloomquist’s follow up to She Came From The Woods is a murder-mystery set in small-town America where a masked killer is offing local teenagers in gruesome ways. Set during the mayoral campaign, the local community is shocked when one of the candidate’s daughters is murdered in front of her girlfriend. And the killings don’t stop there: the deaths are brutal, the set-ups fantastic, and perhaps most impressively the film keeps you guessing as the bodies pile up and the list of possible suspects grows ever shorter. 

There’s more than a little influence from classics such as Halloween (1978), Scream (1996) and even Cherry Falls (2000), with the eerie soundtrack and suburban shots recalling Haddonfield or Woodsboro. But most importantly, Blomquist (along with co-writer / brother Carson) builds a community that the audience cares about. As more people die, the effect on the townspeople is palpable as they desperately try to discover the villain among them.

With all this Founders Day doesn’t take itself too seriously, especially as the killer is revealed, but it does have something incredibly important to say about the political state of the world right now.

© Kim Morrison

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