“We’re living in a Post-Post Malone world…”
Yes, kids. The apocalypse has arrived and thanks to filmmakers Callie + Chris (Callie Bloem, Christopher J. Ewing), who wrote and directed Bounce House, it’s not as bad as we thought? Not yet anyway seeing as it’s only been about two weeks since climate change or giant sloths have upended the natural order of things (Read: The internet going down to start) causing mass suicides and cannibalism despite fresh food still being fairly readily available but hey, Trumpers gonna do what Trumpers do???
Anyway, Polly (Eilise Guilfoyle) is doing okay so far despite banishing herself to the backyard of the small place in California that she shares (or shared) with her roommates who deliberately excluded her from their suicide pact because she’s got a sweet airstream to sleep in, sick Ska tunes from the record player to ward off monstrous coyotes, a local book share she hasn’t read through yet and oh yeah, one cool ass (But blood-stained) bounce house that she stole from the neighbors’ back yard.
That is, until Thea (Jade Kaiser) enters the picture with a no-nonsense survivalist mentality somewhat similar to Zombieland‘s “Tallahassee” who’s here to take Polly out of her bubble in an effort to get to Vermont to hook up with a commune of “badass socialist warrior women reclaiming the land and making this whole thing work for them” with a pit stop in Vegas which is apparently still “actively on fire”. And in order to do that, Thea’s going to train Polly in the new ways of the world while spouting some of the best one-liners this side of The Room (“Your neighbors were just a drop in the dead toddler bucket” is our personal favorite) and teach her that, yes, you should still be embarrassed listening to Ska even when warding off coyotes.
Will they get to where they’re going? Will Polly face her fears? Will we find out what really happened to the world? Not going to spoil, yes, and…. sort of??? And that’s just some of the dark fun of Bounce House which annihilates every apocalypse trope in a scant period of time and absolutely glows thanks in part to the chemistry of leads Kaiser and Guilfoyle.
Bounce House premieres as part of the 2024 Salem Horror Fest “Interludes” series at SATV Studio and screens across both weekends which you can find more about by heading here. For more from Salem Horror Fest, including info on all the screenings and events happening this year, be sure to follow the socials by heading here, here, and here. And to see what’s next from Callie + Chris, head here.