All You Can Eat

Film: Buffet Infinity
Format: Streaming video Amazon Prime on Fire!

I’m not sure how to explain what Buffet Infinity is. It feels like it is pulling ideas from completely disparate sources but also like something completely original, something you have never experienced before. It’s horror, but also comedy, and also kitsch. There are connections to the movie Stay Tuned, SNL short films, Detroiters, Mr. Show, SCTV, Scientology, and cheap local ads. But none of this tells you what Buffet Infinity actually is.

Imagine someone watching late night television where all of the ads are cheap, local ones. The person holding the remote has that sort of scrolling ADHD that keeps them switching channels every 30 seconds or so, and that they have a unique ability to only find news and commercials. And as they continue to move from channel to channel, some odd reality starts to take shape.

Buffet Infinity starts easily enough. We’re going to get local news bulletins and ads for local businesses. There’s a legal office, a sandwich shop, therapy and suicide prevention, a religious group, a used car dealership, a pawnbroker, an insurance agent, a mattress store, and a few others. And there’s also Buffet Infinity, a new buffet restaurant that has just opened in town. Initially, Buffet Infinity seems to be gunning for the sandwich shop, attacking the owner and her family’s secret sauce recipe specifically, as well as the owner’s claim of Italian heritage despite her last name and appearance.

As the ads continue, we see the buffet restaurant slowly growing in its strip mall to encompass other nearby buildings. The targeted ads against the sandwich shop continue, and eventually the shop’s owner vanishes, her restaurant consumed by the ever-growing buffet. More and more people start disappearing. The cult leader’s head explodes on camera, which leads to a vigil for him and a music video that he prepared. The local government appears to be ignoring the growing problem.

More concerning is that the commercials start to bleed into each other. The woman advertising mattresses is suddenly advertising the late night Buffet Infinity Indian food, and then a sort of hellish world where you can watch the movies and shows from your childhood, but not as they actually are but as you want them to be. The local ads become more and more violent. The used car dealer’s superhero persona murders his nemesis. And through all of this, signals break in demanding compliance or resistance. The news openly recommends not believing anything that it says. The restaurant refers to its employees in ways that make it appear that they don’t actually exist, and shows parts of the restaurant that are restricted.

This is an exercise in demanding attention of the audience. The changes are subtle at first, but focus is required to start to notice what is happening as things slowly slide into darkness. It is, in large part, a slope. We start with little changes that soon accelerate into pure chaos and insanity. Look away for a few minutes and the changes that have happened won’t have context. It’s a controlled insanity that goes perhaps in an inevitable direction, but this is also one of the most creative projects I have seen. The story is told through the commercials and how they change. The insurance ads are key to this.

I think it makes some sense to me to break down what I think are some potential references, either intentional or not, that I mentioned at the start of this. The connection to cheaply-made local ads is clear, since the story is told through these ads. The Scientology reference comes from the cult leader who appears to mimic L. Ron Hubbard in real ways and also seems to be worshipped by his followers in the same way. Stay Tuned is a film where a couple get a new TV and are trapped inside it in a literal hell; the fact that our commercial characters can’t leave or move from ad to ad feels like this. There’s a moment where Buffet Infinity attempts to out sell the sandwich shop, creating a massive sandwich with everything on it, a sop to the SNL Taco Town ad. The entire pitch of local advertising feels like a nod to the show Detroiters. The Mr. Show sketch about the warring grocery stores feels relevant as well. And finally, Buffet Infinity is a low-budget Canadian production, which feels exactly like SCTV.

There is no experience like this one that I have had watching a film. I think it’s also going to be divisive—you will either find it insanely fun and entertaining or you will absolutely hate the ADHD nature of it. I do like that it clearly respects the audience—you have to pay attention, and you can’t just let it wash over you.

Why to watch Buffet Infinity: There is really nothing else like this experience.
Why not to watch: You have to pay attention constantly. Seriously, if you need to get up for 10 seconds to switch your laundry, pause it.