Every Heavy Thing [Fantasia 2025 Review]

by Mike McGranaghan

Every Heavy Thing is like somebody made an embryo from the works of David Cronenberg and David Lynch, then implanted it into Climate of the Hunter director Mickey Reece for delivery. That is to say, it’s wild, weird, stylish, and inordinately trippy. The film had its world premiere at Fantasia 2025, representing the exact sort of daring genre fare the festival is renowned for. Buckle up and prepare to have your mind blown.

Joe (Josh Fadem) sells ads for an online periodical. A coworker drags him to a local nightclub to see a performance by sultry singer Whitney Bluewell (Barbara Crampton). He likes the show more than expected, but afterward, he has the unfortunate fate of witnessing a murder. A shady business tycoon named William Shaffer (James Urbaniak) threatens Joe with death if he tells anyone what he saw. That’s not the end of Shaffer, though. After their encounter, Joe begins having bizarre hallucinations that may or may not have something to do with the numerous women who have disappeared around town recently.

A very large, crazy conspiracy is at the heart of Every Heavy Thing, and the movie keeps you guessing from beginning to end. Each new clue seems to bring with it a whole additional series of questions. Suspense is mined from the fact that Joe is a mild-mannered guy, clearly not equipped to handle the sort of hallucinogenic madness Shaffer puts him through. That vulnerability plays out in amusing ways, especially once Joe’s coworker Cheyanne (Kaylene Snarsky) starts investigating Shaffer.

Accentuating this head-spinning mystery is how Reece gets viewers to perceive the chaos inside Joe’s head. He uses a variety of old-school visual techniques that have a purposefully disorienting effect. It’s a shrewd choice because the retro/analog look of the picture feels far more alien to us now than cutting-edge effects would. Elsewhere, the director utilizes unusual scene transitions and split screen to further enhance the off-kilter energy.

The movie’s appealing cast adds immeasurably to the fun. Josh Fadem makes a terrific “Everyman,” James Urbaniak is legitimately threatening, and Barbara Crampton is perfectly alluring as the singer whose function in the plot goes much further than you initially expect. The People’s Joker star Vera Drew even appears in a supporting role as an old friend of Joe’s. You couldn’t ask for a more capable cast to pull off this sort of cinematic insanity.

Thanks to their efforts and its beautifully unsettling ambiance, Every Heavy Thing is 89 minutes of can’t-take-your-eyes-off-it entertainment.

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