Tomorrow Is Yesterday (2021)

“Today is tomorrow. Tomorrow is yesterday.”
— the woman at the bridge

We were first exposed to the work of Michigan-based actor Mason Heidger courtesy of his leading role as a lovable “mad scientist” in the sci-fi oriented rom-com, Making Time. In that film, Heidger impressed with his thespian abilities in rattling off — and convincingly upselling — that film’s scientific expositional dialogue concerned with theoretical physics and quantum mechanics as it related to time travel. So, when I discovered his newest project — and that the project also served as his writing and directing debut in film — I knew I wanted to review it for B&S About Movies.

“It’s just a little side project I did because I was bored. It’s nothing spectacular,” Heidger modestly explained.

“Get ‘bored’ more often,” was my eventual reply.

As Tomorrow Is Yesterday streamed, it became obvious that, across his wide array of shorts and indie features — as well as a dayplayer role as Officer Rucka in the Detroit-shot scenes of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, along with roles in writer-director Harley Wallen’s Michigan-produced Agramon’s Gate and Eternal Code — Heidger wasn’t puffing his ego with any “I am an actor!” foolishness, as most actors oft do, on sets: instead, he was paying attention.

Also starring Christy Edwards (of Wallen’s A Bennett Song Holiday and Eternal Code) and David Budziszewski (a skilled sound recordist doubling in his first acting role), Mason Heidger has crafted an award-winning short on a zero-budget that works wonders across all of its disciplines. The seasonal, wooded cinematography by Cory James Taylor (crewed on Transformers: The Last Knight, as well as Eminem music videos) is clean and crisp. While I lacked a film synopsis or press kit, the soundscapes expertly created by Budziszewksi and musician Aaron J. Morton (Doctor Who: The Soldier Stories fan series; You Tube channel) placed my streaming-watch in the immediate mind set that, while the film opens with a man (Heidger) walking his dog through a peaceful wood, he’s walking into an otherworldly, Twilight Zone moment, one that that will forever change his life — in an Ambrose Bierce, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” stream of consciousness kind-of-way.

My only qualm with the film: Why didn’t you give the dog a screen credit, Mason?

In July of this year, Michigan’s Royal Starr Film Festival selected Mason’s film writing and directing debut for screening. He’s since made Tomorrow Is Yesterday available — for free — on You Tube. You can learn more about the non-profit efforts in film by the Royal Starr Arts Institute on Facebook. You can also learn more about Mason Heidger’s filmmaking journeys on Facebook.

Heidger’s currently in post-production on the feature film debut of fellow Michigan filmmaker Michael B. Chait’s Wolf Hound: a film concerned with the Nazi’s KG 200 program. In addition, Mason recently completed work on Detroiter Harley Wallen’s eleventh feature film, Ash and Bone, currently on the festival circuit with a streaming release, this year. That film delves into the world of Mitten State-bred urban legends . . . the one I know, and freaks me out, is Hell’s Bridge . . . so I wonder if Mason Heidger was, himself, inspired by that creepy bridge legend in crafting his tale.

Fans of Harley Wallen’s films can catch up, with our reviews of Abstruse (starring the always welcomed Tom Sizemore) and Tale of Tails (with Kaiti Wallen of Enteral Code).

Be sure to follow our “Short Films” link, below, to populate our reviews of that genre. Show your support for short filmmakers: for today’s short filmmaker is tomorrow’s feature film Oscar winner.

Disclaimer: We were provided a screener copy of this film from the writer-director upon our request — after discovering it on social media. That has no bearing on our review.

About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook. He also writes film reviews for B&S About Movies and publishes on Medium.

FANTASTIC FEST: Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror(2021)

If you have even a passing interest in the world of folk horror, Kier-La Janisse’s exhaustive exploration — which clocks in at 3 hours and 14 minutes and could have been a thousand more if I had my way — is the film of a lifetime. The ‘unholy trinity’ that launched this trend on to screens — Michael Reeves’ Witchfinder General, Piers Haggard’s Blood on Satan’s Claw and Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man — are not just names, but significant milestones in the history of folk horror. This movie is quite literally the last word in what folk horror is, what it means and how it’s still part of the world of cinema today, perhaps more than ever before.

With more than fifty significant names in the world of horror and horror writing — everyone from Amanda Reyes, Piers Haggard, Adam Scovell, Jeremy Dyson Samm Deighan, Kat Ellinger, Robert Eggars, Ian Oglivy, Kevin Kölsch, Dennis Widmyer and around forty more voices appear with great insights — there’s never been a more well-rounded approach to tackling a movie genre within a genre. This feels like the kind of film that I’ll be coming back to again and again.

Beyond the expected anchors of the genre, I was so excited to see lesser-known films get their due, like Alison’s Birthday (which is on the gigantic All the Haunts Be Ours box set that Severin is releasing), beDevilDark AugustEyes of Fire (also being released by Severin), Grim Prarie TalesLemora (which seemingly has footage from the mysterious blu ray of the film that never materialized) and Zeder.

This is the kind of material you want to pause, write down, make notes on, and keep updating your Letterboxd while watching it. This isn’t just a movie about films. This is a true celebration of the magical wonder hidden within the flickering image, an exploration of a genre of all the dark old things and a journey through how each country documents the unknown through their media.

There aren’t enough stars in the firmament out of ten to rate this one. You can preorder this film from Severin now or watch it on Shudder. You can also visit the film’s official site.

Thanks to the fantastic Letterboxd list Films mentioned in “Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror by Jon Ursenbach, here’s a list of the films as well as links to reviews of them that we’ve done on our site.

FANTASTIC FEST: Who Killed the KLF? (2021)

Any time I think that this world is meaningless and doesn’t make sense, I remember that it should be meaningless and not make any sense. After all: “The belief that “order is true” and disorder is false or somehow wrong, is the Aneristic Illusion. To say the same of disorder, is the Eristic Illusion.”

So then, who are the KLF? The Kings of the Low(er) Frequency? The Kopyright Liberation Front? Kool Low Frequency? Keep Looking Forward? Kevin Likes Fruit? King Lucifer Forever? Or the JAMs? Or the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu” Or The Timelords? How about 2K, The K Foundation, The One World Orchestra or The Forever Ancients Liberation Loophole?

What time is love?

“In the year of our Lord Nine Ninety-Two, the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu set sail in their long boats on a voyage to rediscover the lost continent. After many months on perilous, stormy seas, their search was fruitless. Just when all seemed lost, they discovered AMERICA! The music you are about to experience is the celebration of the one thousandth anniversary of their founding of this great nation.”

Who would start a song like this? Who would claim that a car wrote their greatest hit, then get on Top of the Pops and then write a book that explained to other bands just how easy it is to make a hit record*? Who would spend all the money they made on an Italian western-influenced movie called The White Room** that was never released, but would lead to the evolution in their sound that would create the hits “What Time Is Love?” and “3 A.M. Eternal?”

And then the KLF became the biggest band in the UK. And maybe soon the world.

But was it what they wanted?

So after the Brit Awards, in which they took the stage with Extreme Noise Terror, the KLF shut itself down. A note would follow: “We have been following a wild and wounded, glum and glorious, **** but shining path these past five years. The last two of which has led us up onto the commercial high ground – we are at a point where the path is about to take a sharp turn from these sunny uplands down into a netherworld of we know not what. For the foreseeable future there will be no further record releases from The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords, The KLF and any other past, present and future name attached to our activities. As of now all our past releases are deleted …. If we meet further along be prepared … our disguise may be complete.”

They then deleted their entire catalog. Their Best British Group award was buried near Stonehedge. And thus followed art adventures, as detailed in the film, which I believe shows that they were completely in the right as to burning a million pounds. They also bought a submarine. Drummond also took Zodiac Mindwarp to the North Pole to bury a photo of Elvis to create peace in our time.

But anyway, there’s this documentary by Chris Atkins, who made Star Suckers, which was all about man’s need to be famous. Does he answer all the questions, which this piece is full of? No. And he shouldn’t. He doesn’t need to. KLF didn’t need to answer why they did their art projects either — they tried — and they still don’t.

Alan Moore says in this film that “Our best actions are those which are without lust of result. Our purest actions. Where you’ve got no result in mind. You’re just doing it because it has to be done.”

All I know was that I was six minutes into this movie and it had already reduced me to tears. At one point, Drummond and Cauty say that they would often step outside themselves and ask, “What would the KLF do?” And then they would do it.

Damn if that’s not the best advice I’ve heard in my life.

This isn’t just the best movie I’ve seen at Fantastic Fest. It’s the best film I’ve seen in decades.

*To wit: Drummond would write, “Basically it said you had to be on the dole, watch Top of the Pops every week and if you had any instruments you had to get rid of them.” Austrian dance band Edelweiss followed the lessons in The Manual and did it; other influenced bands include one-off artist Milton and the Klaxons, whose “Atlantis to Interzone” posits a next century-friendly version of the lessons of The Manual as member Jamie Reynolds would say that he “took direct instructions from it… Get yourself a studio, get a groove going, sing some absolute nonsense over the top, put a breakbeat behind it, and you’re away! That’s what I did! That’s genuinely it. I read that, I noted down the golden rules of pop, and applied that to what we’re doing and made sure that that always applies to everything we do. That way, we always come out with a sort of catchy hit number.” Chumbawamba member Boff Whalley was also photographed reading the guide; how else can we figure why “Tubthumping” is unlike any song they did before or since? Nobody really reads the real lesson Drummond wrote: “If you wanna have number one…you can have it. It won’t make you rich, it won’t make you happy, but you can have it.”

**According to the essential KLF Online site, the band received plenty of weird mail, the strangest coming from someone who referred to themselves as Eternity who wanted them to sign a contract that would determine the future of their career. This is not covered in the film, but the first term of the contract required the band to make some kind of art that showed the members on a journey to a place called The White Room. There were no rules other than that, but if they created this art, they would be given access to the real White Room.

So they made a movie.

And their lawyer worried — what the hell kind of contract did these guys sign?

Contracts are a big part of the KLF, including ones written on cars and shoved off cliffs.

Although The Contract was between The JAMS and Eternity, Eternity had no address and would not negotiate. Eternity did inspire lyrics and art; the so-called Liberation Loophole that their lawyer discovered would also free them from the contract which is in the movie.

Which is totally on YouTube.

This is the Inner Film. There’s also an Outer Film. There’s also a segment that connects the two films together.

Yeah, being a KLF obsessive leads one down some rabbit holes.

“Still I’m seeking something
And there’s something that I’m seeking”

FANTASTIC FEST: Mad God (2021)

We shouldn’t have to tell you who Phil Tippett is. He’s the artist who animated everything from the Star Wars miniature chess scene to ED-209 in RoboCop, the aliens of Starship Troopers and the dragons in Willow and Dragonslayer. He’s been working Mad God for thirty years and let me tell you — it was worth it.

An assassin explores a decimated world following a map that is rapidly falling to pieces, taking him through lawless mutant worlds and followed by faceless drones commanded by a monstrous infant. When he finally finds his target, it’s a dud, his life’s mission ruined and he’s captured. Then, the film becomes something else, a metaphor for war, destruction, creation and so much more, all animated by a true master.

While this film was created by dream logic, it also has the destruction of the Tower of Babel, Repo Man director Alex Cox as The Last Man, electrocuted brains, cosmic babies, Hell, Heaven and honestly whatever you want it to be and anything that you see in it. There hasn’t been a movie this formless or as willing to challenge you to answer what it’s all about in, well, forever. It’s a nihilistic apocalypse that somehow makes me want to celebrate being alive.

One of the sales lines for this film states: “Each piece of Mad God is handcrafted, independent and created from the heart.”

This is a film that I feel like I could write thousands of words about and you still wouldn’t know what it was truly about. You must see it and feel it for yourself. It’s begging to be explored and dissected and just plain experienced.

Mad God is playing Fantastic Fest. We’ll share streaming information when we get it. You can learn more about the movie at the official site.

FANTASTIC FEST: The Trip (2021)

Scandanavian director Tommy Wirkola is known in the United States for Dead Snow and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. Now, he has created this film, which was called I onde dager (In Bad Days) in its home country.

It concerns a couple — Noomi Rapace (who played Lisabeth Salander in the original films) and Aksel Hennie — who go away to a cabin to reconnect, but they’re just going to probably murder one another.

In fact, he’s been following her with a noose when she turns around and tases him, awakening him to explain how she was going to kill him and make it look like a hunting accident. That’s when three criminals that have been hiding inside the cabin make their presence known.

This could have been a bit shorter, but with all the black comedy, the blood and the mayhem, I really have no reason to complain.

The Trip will be on Netflix on October 15.

FANTASTIC FEST: Saloum (2021)

Bangui’s Hyenas, an elite mercenary team, have already extracted a drug dealer and his treasure from the chaos of a coup and are heading straight for the payout in Dakar. Yet as much as we love it when a plan comes together, we also seem to love a movie where things fall apart. And the Hyenas have found themselves stranded in the Sine-Saloum Delta, a group of isolated islands filled with local legends and dark magic. Now, the police — and maybe much worse things — are coming down on them.

The Hyenas — Chaka (Yann Gael), Rafa (Roger Sallah) and Minuit (Mentor Ba) — have survived so many wars and missions thanks to their skill and trust in one another. But this time feels different. That’s because it seems like Chaka, their leader, is hiding something. And as they stay within a small lodging camp until they can figure out their escape, the mute Awa (Evelyne Ily Juhen) threatens to expose them to the police unless she can go on the run with them.

Yet by the end, this movie goes from Italian western to American action to a supernatural take on Predator. What a strange ride this movie takes you on and the effects totally work, feeling as real as the gunplay at the start of the film.

Saloum is playing Fantastic Fest. When it begins streaming, we’ll update this post.

PTSD: The Walking Wounded (2021)

Writer/director Ash Patino’shas put together a documentary on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD with a concentration on the invisible wounds that it causes within the military community. The hope is that this film will prove to veterans and their family members that they are not alone when it comes to the unique struggles that come along with their service.

PTSG is incredibly common amongst soldiers, with up to 20% of returning veterans experiencing it in their lifetime. Symptoms include self-isolation, memory loss, negative thoughts, hypervigilance, irritability and nightmares. As pointed out in the film, 20% of returning veterans experience PTSD and 22 vets kill themselves every single day.

By concentrating on veterans Sergio Agudelo and Matthew Gadomski — along with non-profit director David Lionheart, a sister of a vet named Jillian Nadiak and clinical psychologist Allen Hershman, this film has the opportunity to show many sides of the PTSD experience, from those suffering from it to the families and friends who deal with the brunt of their emotions.

If you are currently suffering from PTSD, there are several steps you should take:

  • Call 911
  • Go to the nearest Emergency Room
  • Contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (En Español 1-888-628-9454)
  • Call the Veterans Crisis Line at 1-800-273-8255, then press 1
  • Send a text to 838255
  • Chat online with the Confidential Veterans Chat

PTSD: The Walking Wounded is available on al all major digital and on demand platforms from Gravitas Ventures.

FANTASTIC FEST: Mother Schmuckers (2021)

Issachar & Zabulon, two scumbag brothers, have lost just about everything including a place to get food, now that they’ve lost one more thing — January Jack, their mother’s beloved dog. And unless they get it back in 24 hours, they’re out of her house.

Starring — as well as written and directed by along with his brother Lenny — Harpo Guit, this movie starts with the two leads (Maxi Delmelle plays the other brother) cooking their mother human feces for breakfast and her throwing up the film’s title. If you don’t run away at that point, maybe this is the film for you.

Debuting in the U.S. as part of the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival, this film is a barrage of scatlogical humor that is either going to be the hardest you’ve ever laughed or seventy minutes that feels stretched out beyond infinity.

There is one scene that made me laugh out loud, as one character repeatedly licks and sucks on a loaded gun, then starts gagging because he claims that someone rubbed peanuts all over it. It hit me just right, even if most of the rest of the movie didn’t. But you just might find something that you like here.

The other positive that I can bring up is that the filmmaking is frenetic and full of energy. That said, if you’re a dog person, you might want to skip the end of the movie.

Mother Smuckers is now playing at the Fantastic Festival. When a streaming source is revealed, we’ll update this post.

FANTASTIC FEST: The Exorcism of God (2021)

Exorcism is in this year, if Fantastic Fest is any gauge of the pop culture zeitgeist. It totally is, right? Right.

Between ZalavaAgnes and this movie, I’ve seen plenty of demonic women uttering blasphemy, floating and spitting pea green soup. But hey — I’m also the guy who put together a list of ten movies that I might like more The Exorcist that rip off The Exorcist. Amityville II: The Possession? Enter the Devil? Alucarda? These are the films that I love.

But I have never seen a movie where a demon tries to exorcise God from the soul of a priest, so well done The Exorcism of God and director/co-writer Alejandro Hidalgo (The House at the End of Time).

The open of this film is the end of an exorcism, with Father Peter Williams (Will Beinbrink), going against the church to exorcise a woman. The demon inside her seduces and possesses him, leading to him committing a major sin, a moment of sexual congress ends up having been not consensual, despite the whole possession, and then the priest hides it for two decades as the rest of his small town nearly makes him a saint.

So yeah — it’s kind of hard to see a man who would take advantage of a woman during an exorcism as the hero. That said, this film has some intense imagery, like a possessed Jesus, that will keep the more pious of us up late into the evening.

I’d have also liked this a bit more if it could decide what film it wanted to be: a satire against the hypocrisy of organized religion or an effects-heavy bring out the green vomit horror movie. And hey — a lot of that green goo gets al lover Joseph Marcell, Geoffrey from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, who is really good in the short time he appears.

Look, a possession movie is like a bowl of ramen. I’ve had high-end bowls with butter bombs and organic infusions, fish head ramen at 5 AM in a Tokyo standing shop and all manner of 3-minute bowls and they’re all good. It’s ramen. I love ramen. And that’s kind of how I feel about this movie. It’s not the best bowl of ramen I’ve ever had, but I really enjoyed some of the new flavor that I found when I dug to the bottom — yeah, that demon making a priest renounce God scene is pretty great — and wish that that spice went through the whole dish.

But it still tastes fine.

The Exorcism of God will be streaming on October 19 from Saban Films. We got the great opportunity to see it early at Fantastic Fest.

FANTASTIC FEST: Zalava (2021)

In 1978 Kurdistan, so close to an Iran about to change forever, the village of Zalava is cursed by demons or so the locals believe. To stop those who have been taken over by the dark ones, they use bloodletting as a form of lo-fi exorcism. But now a non-believing military man named Masoud wants to stop that from happening, but his initial efforts lead only to the town growing even more angry.

So when the shaman — or oil snake saleman — Amardan shows up and claims he can stop the demons, even Masoud might be willing to listen. Or Kurdistan is going to burn. But can you really keep demons locked up in a glass jar?

Seriously — I’ve never been more freaked out by a glass jar than director Arsalan Amiri has made me. That’s a major feat.

Between a man who believes in the rational, one who sees the spiritual and a doctor who believes in science but won’t discount that the darkness may be real, Zalava is a real nail biter and a very different take on the exorcism film.

Zalava is playing Fantastic Fest. When it starts streaming, we’ll update this article.