The Stream: A preposterous story, bad acting, and no good jump scares.

The Big Screen: Umm… the killer has a cool weapon.

The Final Bill: A bad slasher movie without scares or laughs.

– Trip Fontaine
Director: Erik Bloomquist
Writers: Erik Bloomquist, Carson Bloomquist
Stars: Naomi Grace, Devin Druid, William Russ, Olivia Nikkanen, Jayce Bartok, Andrew Stewart-Jones
Genre: Comedy, Horror, Mystery
Rating: R for strong bloody violence, language and some sexual references
Runtime: 1 hour 39 minutes
Production Companies: Mainframe Pictures
Platform: In theaters January 19, 2024

Alright, Streamers, here’s one you probably haven’t heard about. Founders Day was released in theaters this weekend. It is a slasher, horror flick with a killer dressed as an angry founding father. When a North Carolina small town in the throes of an upcoming mayoral election is terrorized by a masked man, the townspeople have to reckon with their political and social divisions in order to defeat the killer. Bloody hijinks ensue.

There isn’t much to say about Founders Day. It takes the basic formula of your typical slasher flick, especially something like Scream, and then it plugs in its own specific details. There is potential for an interesting theme since the killer wears a mask and a powdered wig like a founding father, but the movie doesn’t use that to its full effect. This movie should have leaned into the potential terror of impending elections, but it is kind of an afterthought instead of the central theme. Moreover, the scares are lacking or nonexistent. The acting is so bad it is laughable. I couldn’t figure out whether the acting was bad on purpose or if the actors just can’t act. I have to believe that they can’t act because I was laughing at how bad it was. I don’t think the movie intended for that to be the joke. Speaking of jokes, they were few and far between. Some of the gore was intentionally silly, but the movie desperately needed more of that. In fact, this flick could have used a better script and a director with more wit.

I enjoyed how dumb this movie was, but I would never tell anyone to pay to see it.

Ultimately, Founders Day is derivative of the slasher genre of horror movies like the Scream franchise, but it lacks anything clever or funny. The few laughs there are seem unintentional. The acting is bad and the gore looks silly. Overall, this movie is not worth the price of admission. Just wait for it to come on streaming, and then let it play in the background. Just one popped kernel for Founders Day.