Simon Glassman is on the phone from Montreal, where he is about to screen his first feature film, a horror-comedy called Buffet Infinity, at the prestigious Fantasia International Film Festival. "However terrifying the film is, carrying a one-and-a-half-year-old baby around Montreal has been far, far worse," Glassman joked to Taproot.
Buffet Infinity, shot entirely in Edmonton, is about an escalating rivalry between restaurant owners in a fictional small town. It is told through a series of fake, grainy, low-budget commercials.
Glassman, who is also a caricature artist and stand-up comedian, credits an influential producer for helping him get the film a distribution deal with Yellow Veil Pictures, which he signed before an audience had even seen the movie.
During our call, Glassman is at Fantasia on July 28, the day of his screening. The festival is considered among the world's top "genre" galas. The term genre, in this instance, encompasses things like horror, fantasy, and science fiction — basically anything spooky, icky, or trippy. This year's festival includes Eddington, which is directed by Ari Aster and stars Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal, which should give you an idea of Fantasia's calibre.
Glassman said Buffet Infinity is a distinctly Edmonton labour of love, and shared what he was feeling ahead of the premiere with Taproot.
He said he credits the film's producer, Michael Peterson of Peterson Polaris Corp, for much of the momentum behind his movie. Peterson saw the film, immediately signed on as a producer, and pledged to get Glassman both the Yellow Veil deal and Fantasia slot.
Fantasia, meantime, compared the film's style to SCTV, and the work of comedians Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim. Since Taproot's interview, the festival has awarded Buffet Infinity with a special jury mention.
But Glassman's filmmaking process might be just as interesting as what's in the film. Beginning in 2020, he started making bizarre, fake TV commercials set in a near-nostalgia universe that looks pre smartphone but after the millennium, with no goal for a feature-length film. Eventually, he made hundreds of them and created a narrative within the confines of the adverts.
"(At the beginning), it was kind of a joke between me and some friends," Glassman said. "It's a very standard thing that happens with a lot of artists, where the project keeps growing and growing, and then it becomes sort of inconceivable — it just becomes this bucking bronco."
The fake TV ads are for services like insurance and injury lawyers, and standalone products that include a sandwich. One, titled Buffet Infinity Commercial, from Glassman's YouTube, advertises the titular buffet with grainy video and warped, synth-heavy music. It showcases the buffet and makes ominous reference to a sinkhole (which are strangely common in Alberta). The commercial skips like a scratched DVD, and feels like it's coming apart at the seams.
Simon Glassman (third from left) credits producer Michael Peterson (right) with getting his feature film, Buffet Infinity, into the Fantasia International Film Festival and for brokering a distribution deal with Yellow Veil Pictures. (LinkedIn)
Glassman made so many of the fake commercials for the film that he said he has about two hours of them that he couldn't fit into the final cut. The commercials star Edmonton comedians Kevin Singh, Claire Theobald, Donovan Workun (who is also a star of the Department of Paranormal Affairs series), and Glassman's partner, Allison Bench, among others.
The creative team behind Buffet Infinity is a reflection of Edmonton's comedy community more than it is the city's growing horror scene, Glassman said. Edmonton horror filmmakers represented at Fantasia in 2024 with Dark Match, from Dept.9 Studios, and in 2022 with Kyle Edward Ball's global phenomenon Skinamarink. (Both of those films are now on Shudder, and Ball is working on a follow-up to be distributed by A24.)
Still, Glassman said he sees why horror gets made here.
"I think that Edmonton has its own horror vibe, because it is very beautiful, but also desolate, and it's sometimes a good environment for people to have very dark thoughts," he said. "I was definitely very, very inspired by Skinamarink and what (Edward Ball) did with sticking to the bit and having the confidence that you don't see in movies very often. After you see Skinamarink, you're just like, 'Oh, wow, you're really allowed to do literally anything you want.'"
Details on when and where Yellow Veil will show Buffet Infinity are yet to come, Glassman said, but there will be a local screening within the next two months.