I am more of a waffle girlie than a pancake one, but I totally get it. True story: there’s a restaurant near my old house that had literally the best breakfasts I’ve ever had (waffles, eggs, fresh-squeezed orange juice, the works). I would do just about anything to be able to have that again, but sadly, I no longer live nearby. In a way, Pancake Man is sort of like me. All he wanted was some of that fluffy, syrupy goodness. When he can’t get it, all Hell breaks loose. He is Pancake Man.
After Jerry is pushed to the point of no return, he decides to take revenge on everyone who has done him wrong. His first kill ignites the fury of a mob boss’s son and sparks a robbery from the local gang. It is a day of carnage for all three parties.
Pancake Man, Prime Video
Just as the synopsis describes, Jerry Lyons (played by Michael Della Pia) is having a bad day. His car is in the shop. He’s going through a divorce. Only pancakes at his favorite breakfast spot will heal the pain. Unfortunately for him — and everyone in the vicinity — he comes a little too close to the lunch shift and the cook refuses to serve them, offering a burger instead. Enraged, Jerry grabs the nearest fork and begins his ruthless stabbing spree across the city, killing people at the restaurant, gyms, an office — pretty much anywhere he has been inconvenienced. Meanwhile a B-plot with a criminal organization makes Pancake Man one wild ride through the streats of Long Beach.
If you mix a crime thriller, family drama, and wacky breakfast-induced danger, you get this movie. Hilarious because of the straw that broke the camel’s back (said pancakes) but heart-tugging and action-packed, Pancake Man packs together a little something for everyone. Story-wise, Pancake Man takes it from one extreme to another; it seems like everyone is dialed to 11, ready to lash out at any moment. And who could blame them? All of the characters, especially Jerry “Pancake Man” Lyons, needed to release that pent-up rage, and we got some extraordinary kills out of it.
That’s where the horror comes in. Of course, we have Pancake Man‘s infamous fork kills (of which there are a lot). Against fist fights, bottle smashes, and gun violence, a fork sounds like an insane weapon to use… but also a rather normal one. Think about it: a fork is something we use every day, always there. There’s something about using household tools to inflict damage. And Pancake Man certainly shows a lot of damage. Compared to rotting zombies and gross-out gore, this movie brings realistic horrors to the table, which I appreciate from time to time.
It also brings an absurdity to the situation as a whole. Pancake Man has real-life troubles that increase exponentially when a man can’t get his breakfast of choice. Sure it takes place in SoCal, but it’s giving Florida Man vibes that are so crazy to imagine actually happening.
Pancake Man doesn’t automatically present as horror, but it does have it at its heart. Revenge-action-crime-comedies like this are already hard to make, there being so many moving parts, but the crew behind it managed to make all of it make sense without pushing too far out of the realm of reality. A bad situation leads to a million more, eventually devolving the whole world into chaos — all over pancakes. All I can say is, I get it.
For more on Pancake Man, visit it on web and Instagram. Pancake Man is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video and Tubi.
Thanks for watching!
Of course! I will never say no to an indie horror movie π