The Alchemist Cookbook

The film begins with the protagonist, Sean, alone in the forest with only his caravan in which he lives. Sean lives his life in the forest alone accompanied only by his cat Kaspar, and experiments with various chemicals and substances according to an old alchemy book. He leads a simple life in his caravan, going out to collect water, wood, or to go fishing. While practising alchemy, he hears a loud bang which startles him and causes him to call for his cat and flee. However, nothing happens and Sean comforts his cat who is startled. After this Sean goes to take his pills, and realises that these are the last ones and there are no more left. Sean becomes increasingly nervous about sounds he can hear from the forest and locks himself in his caravan with an axe. He is shocked to hear a loud knock at the door. However, it is just his friend Cortez who has come to deliver supplies. Cortez and Sean cannot find a yellow bag which contains Sean’s pills that Cortez was meant to bring. Cortez refuses to go get them from his home as it is a three hour round trip.

Without his pills Sean’s mental health begins to deteriorate. He sets animal traps in the forest and then goes out onto the lake on his boat. He proclaims that he intends to summon a demon that night, and he will give it whatever it wants. Sean visits his trap, which has caught a possum. He takes the trap home and feeds the possum peanut butter from his knife. That night, he makes a fire and throws petrol on it, calling out to the demon, saying he wants to repent his human form. Upon hearing loud bellowing sounds from the forest, he rushes back inside. There, he lights dozens of candles and reads Latin words from his book of alchemy. The possum, still inside the trap, makes some strange sounds and he kills it with his knife.

Cortez arrives and finds the dead possum. He is shocked at the state of the cabin; however as he is on the run, he intends to stay with Sean for a time. Sean is agitated by this and tells him to leave. After Cortez refuses, Sean pulls a knife on him. Cortez restrains Sean and then leaves, angry as he feels Sean has betrayed him. Later Sean finds Cortez’s car which has been destroyed in the forest. He goes out to look for Cortez and finds his Necklace hanging from a tree along with his tooth. That night Cortez stumbles over to the fire where Sean is sitting, he has blood all over his body and tells Sean of the demon in the forest which, he says, wants all Sean’s possessions.

The next day Sean finds Cortez’s body and buries him. Later, in his cabin, Sean extracts his own teeth with pliers. That night he calls out to the demon telling him he has his tooth. There is a loud bellowing and later he is seen sitting inside his cabin covered in blood. Crying and shaking he smashes his head into a mirror, shattering it. Seemingly insane, he drinks chemicals from test tubes and eats the raw internal organs of the dead possum. He realises that his cat is missing and goes out to search for it. Calling for the cat, his voice begins to sound like the howls of the demon. He takes his bag, along with a large rock and submerges himself in the lake. A little later he emerges from the water and, initially ecstatic exclaims that he has defeated the demon. However, his triumph is short lived, as he hears the whimper of his cat and the unmistakable howl of the demon.

The cast only contains two human characters starring Ty Hickson as Sean and Amari Cheatom as Cortez. Other notable characters include the Cat Kaspar and a possum. The cast is notable as it consists of only African American actors, a conscious choice to “take the white people out of the movie” by the director Joel Potrykus.[3]

The film examines the theme of mental health and its role in society. Tom Keogh of the Seattle times says that "there are obvious signs of mental illness in his behaviour". Potrykus explores this through the voices, shapes and sounds in the forest which "visually suggest the tangled shadows in Sean’s head." [7] There has been much debate if what the viewer sees in the film is real or if it is just a reflection Sean's tortured mental state.[6][8] This is the intention of the director Joel Potrykus, to keep the film intentionally ambiguous to encourage thinking on the viewers behalf.[2] Potrykus further leans into this by disrupting the concept of time and space, removing the conventional ties to reality.[4] The eccentric and erratic behaviour of the protagonist Sean, emphasise the mental turmoil and cause the film to venture into the realm of a psychological horror.[9] Furthermore, Potrykus explores the causes and the way that mental health is treated by society, stating that it is difficult to know what an individual may be escaping from in life.[2]

The film has a unique structure, broken up into 8 chapters with the director Joel Potrykus describing the different sections of the film like pieces of a puzzle put together by the audience.[3] Potrykus kept the film intentionally cryptic so that the viewer could form their own interpretation.[3] The viewer is never quite sure what is real or just in the head of Sean.[2] This separation into chapters gives the film a disjointed feel in regard to its scenes and dialogue and makes it near plotless.[6] Potrykus incorporates elements of horror and comedy to surprise the viewer and elicit different reactions from each individual viewer.[2] The colour of the film is predominantly brown, red and gold which is supported by the setting of Michigan forest.[3] Potrykus set specific rules for the filming the film saying "if the characters are moving, the camera is moving. If the characters are not moving, the camera is not moving". This gives the viewer the feeling that they are there with the character, immersing them in the scene.[3] The film features a vague grumbling sound from the forest at various stages of the movie. This builds the feeling of unease throughout the film for the viewer.[2] The film is set in a non-specific time period with the characters not having access to modern technology. The film employs modern horror techniques such as speed ramping and frame-skipping which build the tension in the style of a modern horror.[9]

The film premiered in March 2016 at the South by Southwest Film Festival. The film was then featured at various independent film festivals around the whole world throughout 2016, including at BAMcinemaFest in New York. The film was then officially released in New York and on online on BitTorrent Bundle on the 7th of October.[10] The film was released on an alternate "pay what you want" strategy. Viewers were instructed to pay what they thought the film was worth. This is part of Joel Potrykus’ vision that all films and art should be pay what you want due to its subjectivity.[3]

The critical response to the film by critics was largely positive. The film has an average rating of 76% on the film review website Rotten Tomatoes based on 17 reviews by various critics.[11] Critics largely agree that the film is very unique and not for everyone. Critics praised the unconventional style of the film and "its unsettling intensity" in the final moments of the film.[11] Ty Hickson received widespread praise for his role in the film. Brooklyn magazine said "Hickson's largely silent performance is superb" and Variety commended Hickson for an "irresistible performance".[6] Critics also commented on the elements of comedy in the film, especially by Amari Cheatom who was described as "hilarious".[6] However true to the film’s divisive nature not all critics were as impressed. Todd Jorgenson from http://cinemalogue.com/ commented that the films "ambiguity with regard to key details becomes frustrating" and a Spanish magazine described the film as a "complete waste of a horror movie" and that "nothing justifies whatever it was the director tried to do here".[11]