Friend of the World is a 2020 Surreal Horror film written and directed by Brian Patrick Butler, starring Nick Young and Alexandra Slade.
Diane (Slade), a young filmmaker, wakes up in a bunker after a worldwide disaster. Following a run in with General Gore (Young), the two begin exploring their environment and each other's beliefs. As the pair venture out into the corridor for answers, bizarre things begin to happen.
Butler has cited influences such as Apocalypse Now, Dr. Strangelove, La Jetée as well as the works of John Carpenter, David Cronenberg, Jean-Paul Sartre and Samuel Beckett.
The film premiered in 2020 at the Oceanside International Film Festival. It was later nominated for a couple awards before being distributed by Troma. It has a fresh approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Three Hundred Sixty Six Weird Movies says its "strengths, and weaknesses, are the double-edged swords of exiguous narrative, exaggerated performances, and elevated Art-Housery."
Previews: Trailer
Friend of the World contains examples of the following tropes:
- Body Horror: Creatures merge with the living, displaying body deformity and mutilation.
- Crazy Survivalist: General Gore is a paranoid military officer who appears to be the only survivor of a mass casualty event.
- Emerging from the Shadows: As the fourth chapter begins, Diane steps out from the shadows behind Gore.
- Genre Shift: The multi-genre story shifts between Surreal Horror, Body Horror, Sci-Fi Horror and Dark Comedy.
- Hazmat Suit: Two characters on the surface blow a hole in the bunker and make their way inside.
- Mind Screw: While the film is set up better in the first half, the second half makes the viewer question what is happening.
- Minimalist Cast: Slade and Young are the two lead actors, though there are a few supporting actors.
- Ontological Mystery: The characters are confined in claustrophobic spaces.
- Splash of Color: Most of the film is Deliberately Monochrome. Flashbacks, dream sequences and the outside world are in color.
- Surreal Horror: The bizarre imagery throughout the film is
Nightmare Fuel. - Waking Up Elsewhere: Diane wakes up surrounded by corpses in an underground bunker.
- Your Head A-Splode: A strange character crafts a bomb, puts it in their mouth and lights it.
- Zombie Apocalypse: The characters run into an undead creature that was once a man named Ferguson. An antidote reveals they are contagious and would infect others who come in contact with them.
