19/14
In this supernatural winter epic set in the 19th century, a drunken apple 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 “faints”; his mustache falls off & lands in the snow and gets back 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. I saw it at the Nightmares Film Festival. It doesn’t fall into the horror category, but I still wanted to write a review. I should preface this by saying that this is not normally a movie I would enjoy. Watching this with a crowd, however, as the day neared midnight, it was a fun experience. Add to that the theatrical tragedy from co-writer/star Ryland Brickson Cole Tews. I should also include; This was the Ohio premiere. For this film, we have Jean Kayak (Tews) who has an orchid and makes hard cider. He’s a drunk who just loves to have a good time. One day, beavers come and break one of the large barrels that hold his cider. This causes everything to fall apart and now it’s 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 a crime. So much so that the guy who runs the station, Doug Mancheski, wants to marry his daughter, who is a furrier, Olivia Graves. Jean has an uphill battle to become a trapper and that will bring him face to face with the beavers in the area. They’ve created an epic dam that holds a lot more inside. So I was a little familiar with what I was getting here after seeing a previous Tews film called Lake Michigan Monster. This is in a similar vein. There’s CGI and animation for the backgrounds. Those techniques are also used with the character movements and just to bring this thing to life in general. That takes a lot of time and I’m impressed there. What helps is that we don’t put much in the way of 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 talk. It looks cheap, but what’s happening is a lot harder than it looks. Going along with this idea, they tell a narrative story without using much dialogue. The things we see become repetitive. I admit that as we neared the end, I was exhausted and ready to head home. I don’t want to take away from this though, staying awake the closer we get to midnight gets harder every day. I will say though. This movie is made for a theater experience or to have people over for drinks and just enjoy your time with it. I can see people hating on it. 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, skip this one for sure. My rating: 6 out of 10.
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