HORROR-THON 2026 • NO EXIT
8/10
DIRECTOR: Simon Glassman
STARRING: Kevin Singh, Ahmed Ahmed, Brandon Vanderwall
RELEASED: 2025
RUNTIME: 1 hr, 33 minutes
WATCH ON: Shudder, AMC+, Amazon, Apple TV, Fandango at Home
SCARE LEVEL: Low to medium
UNLIMITED CRAB LEGS: Not worth it.
You’re flipping through channels late at night in a small town. There’s an ad for a pawn shop. An ad for a personal injury lawyer. And an ad for a brand new all-you-can-eat buffet with prices too good to be true. Then the buffet ad starts to change…
Westridge County, Alberta, has a family restaurant, a few local businesses, and a public-access channel that runs its commercials. Then a new chain called Buffet Infinity moves in with unbeatable prices.
People start going missing. The buffet keeps expanding into places it shouldn’t. The whole story plays out through the town’s commercials and news segments: a local author warning anyone who will listen, a lawyer trying to stay on the buffer’s good side, and a pawn shop family just trying to stay open.
MY HUMBLE OPINION
It’s the most creative format of the year. There’s no main character and no traditional story, just ads, and somehow you follow everything.
As a marketer, this one hit me in a very specific place. It’s a horror movie about advertising, about how a brand slowly takes over a town by being cheap, friendly, and everywhere. Silver Shamrock walked so Buffet Infinity could run. I also read a take that compared Buffet Infinity’s evolution throughout the film being similar to how our algorithms work. Slowly, over time, learning what the audience wants and adapting, which is an extra creepy detail.
Every time I’ve tried to explain any of this movie to another human being, I find myself constantly remembering other bits I need to share. It’s honestly chaotic in the best way. I do agree with some people that the pace kinda drags at times; however, there is usually some random nugget that will pull you back in almost immediately.
Like Backrooms, it started as a YouTube short. 2026 was the year the internet came for the horror-thon.