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Fantasia 2025: Every Heavy Thing Review
Image Credit: Fantasia IFF
Loading...Directed by: Mickey Reece
Written by: Mickey Reece
Starring:
Josh Fadem – Joe
James Urbaniak – William Shaffer
John Ennis – Fisher
Vera Drew – Alex
Tipper Newton – Lux
Kaylene Snarsky – Cheyenne
Barbara Crampton – Whitney Bluewill
Running Time: 89 minutes
Not Rated
Whatever you may think of Mickey Reece, you can always at least be assured that you’re going to get something interesting from him. The Oklahoma-based indie filmmaker is nothing if not industrious, and each of his films offers something different from what you can get just about anywhere else, either in Hollywood studios or the mainstream indie scene.
Every Heavy Thing continues that trend with its world premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival, providing his own darkly comedic spin and DIY aesthetic on the DTV cat-and-mouse serial killer film. The film steeps itself in the trappings of the genre for an often engaging – if occasionally frustrating – thriller.
Set in the fictional Hightown City, Every Heavy Thing centers on Joe (Josh Fadem), a fairly average man who sells ads in the local struggling alt-weekly. Joe is content enough with his life and his longterm relationship with his girlfriend Lux (Tipper Newton). However, his world is shook up when he is invited by a co-worker out to a club to see a singer perform.
Leaving the club after the show, he becomes the sole witness to a murder. The murderer immediately identifies himself as William Shaffer (James Urbaniak), acknowledges being the serial killer who is praying on the women of the city, and tells Joe to tell no one on pain of death. Joe tries to keep the secret, but the killer’s actions press into his life as he starts dreaming of William’s victims and a new reporter at his paper (Kaylene Snarsky) starts investigating the epidemic of Hightown’s missing women.
With Every Heavy Thing, Reece is not subtle about where he’s drawing inspiration from. The split screens, lurid opening kill scene and psychosexual overtones are pure DePalma, filtered through Reece’s unapologetic low-budget aesthetic with a dash of David Cronenberg’s surreal biotech fetishism thrown in for flavor. Reece follows Joe right down the rabbit hole for some trippy moments that may turn more mainstream audiences off but play quite well to those used to the director’s sensibilities.
Complementing the low-fi aesthetics are some solid pieces of performance work by the cast. Fadem, Newton, Vera Drew and Snarsky give naturalistic performances, while Urbaniak gets to chew some scenery as our villain. It’s all about the vibes here, set to an 80s synth score that adds a bit more of those old-school genre tones to great effect.
Underneath the seamy thriller and off-beat conversational humor is a deeper story about technology and our culture of surveillance. Hightown City is getting gentrified, and our killer’s deadly games with Joe contain deeper reveals about what the villain’s game is. He preys on women while inviting Joe to observe the results of his carnage though strange means, and through it all the media hangs on every new development.
For all the momentum it has going for it up for much of its running time, it’s unfortunate to see the film trip itself up in the last act as resolutions need to be found. Reece’s subversion falls apart a bit at this point with the need for a conclusion; the ideas are there but the execution falls a little short. A few characters fall through the cracks or end up with little to do, resulting in some scenes that don’t quite find their place.
Still, there is plenty to enjoy here if you appreciate a film that actively eschews the polish of a studio piece. Every Heavy Thing is a dirty little film that doesn’t mind being weird or showing its rough edges,
The Fantasia International Film Festival takes place in Montreal from July 16th through August 3rd.
