2016 Directed by Joel Potrykus
Self-made chemist Sean, a recluse living in an old trailer in the woods, suffers from pill-popping delusions of fortune. When his manic attempts at cracking the ancient secret of alchemy go awry he unleashes something far more sinister and dangerous.
"MINOR THREAT"
1st-time watching this i took sean's tshirt as just another low budget horror director showing off their way cool music taste, like every other punky outsider's tees from twisted issues to t2: judgment day. but - isnt this what sean is? not enough of a threat to fuck up society, the courthouse, his creditors or the devil, but enough for each of them to fuck him up bad, a displaced outcast, like marty jackitansky or whatever pyro dudes name was in ape, one who left the margins and took to the woods, black and weird and deep in debt, an acceptable loss, a minor threat.
![nathaxnne [hiatus]](https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/avatar/upload/1/9/5/2/4/3/shard/avtr-0-80-0-80-crop.jpg?v=2d9f35eba8){kind=small}
Without alchemy, we wouldn't have what we understand to be the Modern World. The Scientific Revolution (including Chemistry, Physics, Calculus, etc) and Non-Specie Currency Theory are branches of Alchemy in the way that birds are dinosaurs. Alchemy was (and is) much more than that, though, incorporating Ceremonial Magick, Theology, Natural Philosophy and, most importantly, a DIY program of independent inquiry in which there was no central authority, no governing body, to license or approve experimentation, fund projects, etc. Lots of times alchemists would approach venture capital or monarchs/aristocracy for partnerships/assistance, and vice-versa, and certainly alchemists would rate each other on success/failure, but there was no peer-review or open-source data sharing. In fact, alchemists tended to develop idiosyncratic systems which they…
"Yo, Let's watch this shit right now. Get all fucked up and weird, watching Belushi killing this shit, huh?"
Sean (Ty Hickson), a chemist living an isolated life in the woods, becomes increasingly convinced that an evil presence stalks the nearby wilderness. He becomes increasingly unmoored from reality the more he begins to attempt to contact, summon and make a deal with the entity.
Potrykus does a hell of a lot with very little to work with here. The choice to invert what would perhaps be a bucolic setting in another season but is leafless, brown and dead now really plays into the disconnected atmosphere of sparse loneliness where no chance of help exists. There's some truly great moments of…
I CLOSE MY EYES AND SEIZE IT
I CLENCH MY FIST AND BEAT IT
I LIGHT MY TORCH AND BURN IT
I AM THE BEAST I WORSHIP
A very intriguing film, with a strong lead performance. Successfully funny and frightening, but at times the pace gets a little tedious.
Plodding. What happens when you blow your creative load on a title. A curious scientist embarks on a dangerous mission to communicate with dark forces he doesn’t completely understand in this movie made by a director who embarked on the mission of making a film that I didn’t completely understand.
Brought to you by Doritos.
is this really happening or are you going crazy?
the answer is yes.
the death of the dream. infinite space is as suffocating as a coffin when you're all alone. these are not don quixote's windmills, these monsters are real and they live inside our heads and they can win. all we ever wanted was peace and enough, and it all falls apart when we lose our cat.
(archiving my Beacon writing)
“The time is so little, the time belongs to us!”
The Alchemist Cookbook is a nightmare vision of demon summoning in the Michigan woods. Carried almost exclusively by a captivating performance from Ty Hickson, Cookbook on its surface asks us to determine on our own what is really happening. Is Sean summoning a demon? Or is this a portrait of accelerating mental collapse? Potrykus says specifically, “I wanted it to be in his head or actually there - you’re never quite sure.”
But perhaps its more urgent and implicit question is what might drive someone to seek occult power? The goal of alchemy, after all, is gold. We never quite see what Sean is fleeing, but…
"We could take whatever we wanted. Wouldn’t even have to pay for it."
There's something about micro-budget creep-fests that can heighten their eeriness to impressive levels. The Alchemist Cookbook proves just that, albeit sporadically, with some terrific uses of sound, literal darkness, and unsettling visual bareness that together conjure up spookier shadows than much pricier flicks. Young up-and-comer Ty Hickson also keeps this engaging when it could've easily not been. Unfortunately, a lot of this is inconsistent, combining awkward characterization with corny narrative and editing missteps that undermine what is otherwise a pretty solid imagination-stoking isolation horror.
Scavenger Hunt 65 #2 out of 31 - Go to a random number generator and generate a number from 80 to 180. Whatever number you get, find a film that is that many minutes long. - THANK YOU, GOD. 82 minutes :')
This dude summons the devil to get his hands on the robot from Rocky IV? Finally some relatable stakes in a movie!!
The Alchemist Cookbook is like The Martian if Matt Damon was living in a rusty trailer deep in the Michigan woods and he decided to pseudo-science the shit out of spare cleaning chemicals because he wasn’t smart, just insane. Call it The Michiganian. The Martian was a clarion call for humanity’s aspirational best. The Alchemist Cookbook is the sobering reality that 99% of us would quickly go nuts if left to our own devices.
(Full review at Seattle Screen Scene.)
