FUNGICIDE
dir. Dave Wascavage, 2002
United States. 84 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3 - 10 PM
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11 - MIDNIGHT
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14 - 10 PM
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25 - MIDNIGHT

“You don’t pick them… They pick YOU!”

Silas is a mad scientist with a terrible work-life balance. When his concerned parents send him on a retreat to a remote bed & breakfast in the woods, Silas accidentally unleashes his latest biological experiment on a small batch of mushrooms, causing them to mutate into giant feral fungi with a taste for human flesh.

Dave Wascavage’s debut feature pushes all the right buttons for a late-SOV horror classic, packed to the gills with irreverent humor, low-poly CGI, blood-soaked appendages, and even bloodier puppets. Acting as a one-man film crew (in the roles of director, co-writer, producer, DP, editor, (de)composer, and self-taught VFX artist), Wascavage spored no expense of his $142 budget, assembling a cast of mainly family and friends, and shooting the entire feature on a single portabello camcorder over the course of a weekend.

The film also contains some strong satirical undertones, poking fun at the self-absorbed, single-minded lifestyles embraced by the B&B’s other over-the-top residents: The hippie owner who champignons the benefits of natural living to a fault, the testosterone-addled pro wrestler who she suspects may be involved in some cremini-al drug activity, and the shady real estate agent who’s there to put his own morel-ly questionable schemes into play. It’s the type of no-budget schlock masterpiece that grows on you with each viewing.