Founders Day (2024) -- My Take on the Movie with Spoilers
Plot: A serial killer plagues a small town right before the mayoral election.
Ah, Founders Day. A day which is celebrated to commemorate the founding of a place. For building it and for passing laws that will help keep the nation or city safe and secure for generations to come.
But in horror movies it is the perfect time to create chaos.
Founders Day is a messy film. There are some interesting bits here and there but it's a largely uninteresting film which fortunately picks up towards the end.
And that too because of the twist. That is when politics is put to good use in the twist. Before that, the killings are just plain okay. Nothing that imaginative and mostly unnecessary.
FOUNDERS DAY Movie Plot
In a small town called Fairwood, mayoral elections are taking place and there are people in the streets all with signs to show support and thrash the opponents.
Mayor Gladwell is hoping for a re-election.
Opponent Harold Faulkner's daughter Melissa, isn't bothered about the elections or about keeping appearances. She goes out to see her girlfriend Allison who isn't being too romantic with her.
In fact, she talks about going off to study in a far away city. Melissa isn't pleased and as a joke, handcuffs Allison to a bridge where people have put up love notes.
Soon enough, a car comes to a stop at a bridge. Melissa accuses the driver of being a voyeur or worse, a racist. She goes stomping towards the man who exits the vehicle and gets thrashed around.
Allison screams and tries to free herself but can't. The masked man throws Melissa off the bridge.
Allison finally gets loose and runs away in fright. She ends up near the crowd who are roaming about with signboards. They surround her and you wonder if she is going to get beaten up.
It has now some time later and Allison is still shocked and grieving.
Adam, Melissa's brother is also feeling depressed considering he lost his sister and his girlfriend Lilly also broke up with him and is seeing someone else.
Now Adam's father Faulkner and Lilly's mother Gladwell are running against each other in the mayoral elections which could probably be the reason why Adam and Lilly broke up.
Adam and Allison attend a party in the theatre only to run into Lilly and her boyfriend which puts Adam in a bad mood.
There are still some unmistakable sparks between them both though but Adam still sulks.
Later, after everyone has left the theatre party and Lilly, who works there, is cleaning up.
Adam is having a sleepover at Allison's at that time.
Lilly is wearing Adam's sweatshirt and texting him about how much she misses him.
She hears noises and removes her pepper spray only to find out that it was pranksters Britt and Tyler who were trying to spook her. Tyler gets sprayed by pepper spray and hopefully learns not to prank people again.
Just when she lets her guard down, the screen lights up and plays the lets all go to the lobby jingle. Lilly is so distracted that she doesn't see the killer behind her.
She is pepper sprayed first after which she is killed mercilessly.
Her body is thrown in a dumpster. Now that we have seen her body, we know she is dead. We still haven't seen Melissa's body.
Meanwhile, Adam finally reveals why he broke up with Lilly. His sister Melissa had seen Lilly cheat on him which is why he broke up with her.
The next day, Mayor Gladwell us giving her speech while Rob is roaming around the alleyways. He spots something in the dumpster and opens it to find Lilly's body.
He runs towards where the campaign is taking place and informs the cops but then when he shows them the body, he is seen as a prime suspect which is why he runs away.
The Mayor's assistant, Oliver, immediately puts an end to the event and informs the mayor about what happened to her daughter. She is devastated.
In the middle of all this there is also Commissioner Peterson who keeps sucking on lollipops and giving angry glares as she tries to decipher what the lyrical words on the banners have to do with the killings in town.
There is also a Mr. Jackson who is the teacher and on the council as well.
The pranksters Britt and Tyler are the next to be attacked by the serial killer at school when they are serving detention.
Allison is roaming about too and ends up hearing chalkboard noises. When she enters the classroom she sees the mask on the desk and a guy, still in serial killer robes, writing something a verse on the board. The kind the killer has been living behind.
Allison loudly gasps which catches the attention of the killer who is none other than Adam!
Allison runs away in fright and Adam chases her, trying to give her an explanation.
Allison's father Thomas is waiting outside for her when he sees his daughter crying and being chased. He gets into Protective Father mode and accidentally stabs Adam. Thomas is as shocked as Adam is when he collapses. Spluttering blood, he says that this is not what was supposed to happen.
Officer Miller takes Thomas for questioning and lets him know that charges will not be pressed since he acted in self-defense.
Rob meets with Allison and tells her that he has nothing to do with what happened to Lilly.
Things become confusing as Miller lies about what happened to Thomas and Allison suspects him.
Rob ends up attacking Miller but Allison doesn't trust to go with him either.
Gladwell and Faulkner get on each other's throats and the killer ends up killing them both.
Allison heads back home to find her father and sees a verse written on the front door. Along with candles everywhere.
FOUNDERS DAY Ending Explained
Allison feels like she is being wooed as she heads upstairs. She finds notes throughout and arms herself. When she looks under the bed and finds the masked killer, she stabs him until she realizes it is her father, all tied up.
She starts to free him when the real killer walks in: Melissa.
The twist isn't shocking because we never saw her body, remember?
Melissa goes on about what a sad family life she had because of politics and how she brainwashed her brother Adam into helping her become a murderer because his girlfriend cheated on him and she deserved to be punished for it.
It's basically about Melissa not getting enough attention from her parents which led to her becoming a serial killer.
Turns out Oliver, Miller and Mr. Jackson were also helping her create chaos in town to distract everyone and make the running candidates with their dumb agendas, lose.
Now that both candidates were dead, the next mayor that will automatically be elected is the oldest member in the council: Mr Jackson.
Melissa wants Mr Jackson to kill Allison but he attacks Melissa instead. There is more struggling before Allison kills Melissa.
Jackson convinces Allison to keep quiet about the whole thing. If she tells the truth then she risks her future as well.
Allison wants to go off to college so she happily chooses to keep quiet and leave.
A year later, Mr Jackson is the most popular Mayor while Allison is doing well at college.
She even became president of the Student Government Association.
Jackson and Allison are shown to give similar speeches, showing us that in politics, everything is fair.
The movie ends.
Founders Day was frustratingly confusing and the filmmakers didn't seem to want to tell its story in a linear form. The story seems all over the place and at times is dull.
The finale does bring the story together but by that time it is too late to actually care about it or revive an interest.
Scare Scale:
Comments
Post a Comment