The musician, actor, and filmmaker Matt Farley has been making movies with his family and friends under the banner of Motern Media since 2002. Working alongside Charles Roxburgh, he’s made what he calls “filmed community theater.” But, starting in 2012, with Don’t Let the Riverbeast Get You!, the audience for Motern Media’s productions has grown, reaching a tiny but extremely enthusiastic audience. Their newest film, Evil Puddle (2025), boasts their largest cast to date and takes a break from the darker themes of their recent fare to reflect on what it means for a community to work together, both off- and on-screen.
William Van Rhyn (Farley) rides his bike through the small town of Medialight, posting notices of the town’s anniversary party. But before it can take place, Reggie (Chris Peterson) happens upon a rock with the power to freeze time, accidentally creating the titular puddle. With the townspeople trapped in place, William struggles to get them back to normal without hurting anyone. The film’s aesthetic reclaims Irwin Allen for a 4-figure budget, digging through a seemingly bland location to find weirdness in suburban pizza parlors and backyards.
The film’s dialogue, in line with Motern Media’s habit for writing purposefully stiff-sounding and old-fashioned conversation, comes alive in Farley’s delivery. But, speaking in a Mid-Atlantic accent while wearing a bowtie and puffing from a pipe, Motern Media regular Kevin McGee also proves a delight, offering a variation on the type of academic who has only ever existed in the Hollywood imaginary. Farley and Roxburgh’s jokes are built upon the repetition of certain themes and phrases. This quality emphasizes their essential ludicrousness; the concept of “ancient pilgrim knowledge”, for example, becomes funnier after we’ve heard it 20 times. Evil Puddle isn’t exactly devoid of irony, but it treats its material with basic conviction. It knows exactly how silly it is, but it’s ambitious enough to take its ideas seriously.
Digging for subtext in Evil Puddle risks missing the point: the film’s essential joy is its contagious delight in its own creation, exemplified in a closing documentary scene that sees Farley perform a song as he retells the film’s story. While recent Motern Media films have commented on Farley’s rise to a very small but still real degree of fame, Evil Puddle brings the town together to fight a sudden health catastrophe. Sound like anything that’s happened this decade? As many mistakes as its characters make, it’s refreshingly uncynical about the possibilities of Americans working with one another, offering its own existence as a model.
Evil Puddle screens tonight, October 17, and on October 22, at Spectacle as part of the series “Son of Motern Mania!” Directors Matt Farley and Charles Roxburgh will be in attendance for a Q&A tonight.
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