time cat book review

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Time cat: the remarkable journeys of jason and gareth.

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Lloyd Alexander | 4.24 | 6,330 ratings and reviews

Ranked #78 in Cat

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A time-traveling cat fantasy: Lloyd Alexander’s Time Cat

Figure 1: one of the cover designs for Time Cat

I’ve been threatening with a blog post about a time-traveling cat for a while now, so here it is! I’m giving you Lloyd Alexander’s children’s fantasy Time Cat: The Remarkable Journeys of Jason and Gareth , what we’d probably call a middle grade novel today, originally published in 1963, and very much still in print, though not as well-known in the UK as (I suspect) in the USA. This was an important book for Alexander’s career as a children’s fantasy author. It came before the Prydain books, and helped him find his voice and confidence to write for children. I got interested in this book while researching my latest monograph,  Celtic Myth in Contemporary Children’s Fantasy , because of the way it paved the way for Prydain – but more on this below!

Time Cat  is the story of a cat, Gareth, and his human, a boy named Jason. The “mythology” of this novel is that the human folk belief that cats have nine lives isn’t quite right. As Gareth explains:

“I only have one life. With a difference… I can visit nine different lives. Anywhere, any time, any country, any century.” (p. 3)

and Gareth justifies this in terms familiar to any cat owner:

“Where do you think cats go when you’re looking all over and can’t find them?… And have you ever noticed a cat suddenly appear in a room when you were sure the room was empty? Or disappear, and you can’t imagine where he went?” (p. 3)

And, as one would expect, Gareth and Jason depart on a time-travel journey to visit nine different historical moments all over the world, in a tour clearly curated by Gareth, as all the times and places they visit have a significance for feline-human relationships!

Figure 2: Bastet/Ubaste

The first place they visit is ancient Egypt, circa 2700 B.C., where cats are worshipped as part of the cult of Ubaste (or Bastet), who often appears iconographically as cat-headed. Ubaste’s symbols include the ankh, a hieroglyphic usually associated with word for “life”, which makes Gareth extra special – we learn right at the opening of the novel that Gareth is black, and that the only white spot on his chest is “a T-shaped mark with a loop over the crossbar” (p. 2), which is very clearly an ankh (see also Gareth as pictured in one of the book’s covers, Figure 1). Gareth and Jason are whisked away to King Neter-Khet, who has been looking for a special cat to please him. After some misunderstandings, they both end up teaching the king that “Not even a Pharaoh can give orders to a cat” (p. 21) – and rightly so!

Their next visit is to Rome and Britain, in 55 B.C. In Rome Gareth becomes the mascot of the “Old Cats Company” and with Jason and two Roman soldiers they sail to Gaul and from there to Britain. In the conflict between the Roman legions and the “shouting Britons” (p. 33) Gareth gets into a fight with a British wildcat and Jason is captured by a local tribe. They stay with them a while and after they educate the British to value, rather than fear, cats, the wild cat approaches the village with its kittens, one of which is clearly Gareth’s! This is the beginning of domesticated cats in Britain! (So an aetiological story, of sorts!)

Ireland in 411 A.D. is the setting of the next episode: Gareth and Jason meet Diahan, the daughter of a local king, and Sucat, the king’s herdsman. This is the episode mentioned in my book , because Sucat, a slave captured from Wales, and a Christian in a pagan land, is actually a young St Patrick!

Lloyd Alexander has originally planned a Welsh episode for this book, in which Jason and Gareth would meet St Patrick in his native Wales, before his kidnapping by Irish slave raiders. Alexander had been to Wales while serving in WWII and remembered it fondly. Also, while researching Time Cat , he had found out that St Patrick’s Welsh name meant “Good Cat” which tied up nicely with a feline-focused story. According to Alexander’s plan:

Jason and Gareth run across this young boy with a strange name, the future St. Patrick, of course. They meet him in Wales, probably in some spot where I had been myself. I can draw on my own sense of the country because I know it and am fond of it. What could be more natural than this?… They all get kidnapped by these Irishmen in a big dramatic scene… (cited in Jacobs, 1978, p. 264)

The “Welsh research” Alexander embarked upon to prepare this episode was somewhat overwhelming and brought back memories of his childhood reading and his own visit to Wales. As he noted in an interview:

something began stirring inside my head. Strange, personal stirrings began to happen to me. This was far too rich a thing to do in one chapter, so I changed my idea. Instead of having Jason and Gareth meet St. Patrick in Wales, they meet him in Ireland and it becomes an Irish episode. (Ibid., p. 265)

And, indeed, all of the rich Welsh legends Lloyd Alexander has suddenly remembered found their way into the Prydain books (more on which in my book ).

As for the name Sucat and its feline associations, in  Time Cat  St Patrick explains that:

“In Britain, they called me Patrick. But my real name is Sucat. It means ‘Good Cat’ – and it means ‘Good Warrior.’ For in my land, the land of Wales,” he added, “we call our warriors ‘Cats.’” (p. 53)

Figure 3: Margaret Cooper Gay’s How to Live with a Cat (first published in 1946)

“Succetus” is indeed recorded as one of St Patrick’s alternative names in  Tírechán’s Collectanea (Account of St Patrick’s churches) from c. 670. The text itself translates what seems to be a British/Welsh name as “god of war” (see Dumville, 1993, p. 90). The somewhat fanciful translation of the name Patrick as “good cat” came from a book the name of which Alexander could no longer recall, but I’m now pretty sure it was Margaret Cooper Gay’s How to Live with a Cat  (first published in 1946), in which she claims that St Patrick was originally “a Scottish monk named Su Cat” which may be translated as “Happy Warrior or the Good Cat” (Cooper Gay, 1969, p. 17). This example of Alexander repeating or adopting dubious research for “things Celtic” is something of a pattern that I’ve traced in detail in The Chronicles of Prydain  in my book. [i]

Figure 4: Cat in kimono in modern Japan (click image for source and more pictures)

The Irish episode in  Time Cat  brings together St Patrick and his mission, the folk belief of Ireland overridden with snakes until St Patrick banishes them (there’s an excellent scene of Gareth fighting a snake), and an element of romance between Jason and Diahan. Diahan is actually very much a prototype for Eilonwy. She is feisty, strong-minded, has “red-gold hair tossed about her soldiers” (p. 49) and chastises Jason for being impolite, or talks to him only to tell him that she won’t talk to him – all staples of Eilonwy-Taran interactions in the Prydain books.

Next stop: Japan 998 A.D. during the reign of Emperor Ichigo, when cats were introduced to Japan from China. Gareth and Jason teach the boy-Emperor Ichigo not only that cats aren’t toys to be played with and admired (and that it’s definitely NOT appropriate to dress his kittens in tiny embroidered kimonos!) but also how to find his voice and strength and assert himself over his rather nasty uncle-regent.

The fifth life Gareth and Jason visit is that of another historical figure, but this is perhaps the best-known one in the book: Italy 1468 and a young Leonardo da Vinchi, who is yet to convince his father that he doesn’t want to be a notary (as per the family tradition) but an artist. And, of course, Gareth and Jason end up becoming the catalyst for this! Leonardo, who writes his name backwards on his bedroom room (Odranoel), ends up creating a painting of a hybrid cat creature so life-like, that his father sees at last his talent. The inspiration is Gareth’s magnificent movements and feline physique. While Leonard works on drafting his painting, we literally see him producing the famous “Study sheet with cats” (Figure 5), now in the Royal Collections:

Figure 5: Leonardo da Vinci, “Study sheet with cats, dragon and other animals” (click image to see larger version) The boy picked up a bit of charcoal and began sketching rapidly on the back of an old sheet of paper. “The thing about cats,” Leonardo said, working along until the paper was covered, “is the way they’re made. Those muscles in the back legs. Can you imagine how strong they must be? That’s why cats can jump so high. And the back, it can move almost any way, like a sword blade. “Everything is in balance,” Leonardo went on, “all the muscles and bones and joints. That’s what I want in the painting, too.” “Well, I hope you aren’t going to paint bones and muscles,” Jason said. “I don’t think anybody would like that.” “Of course I’m not going to paint just bones and muscles,” Leonardo said. “But I know where they are, even if nobody else sees them. And that’s bound to make the picture better.” (p. 112)

Next, Gareth and Jason move to 16th-century Peru (1555) and meet Diego Fernández, the man who soon after became the historian of Peru for the Viceroy (who ruled in the name of the King of Spain). Don Diego’s kind nature (clearly expressed by his fondness for cats) leads to an effort towards mutual understanding between the Incas and the Spanish conquistadors (I don’t know much at all about this era, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the story is a rather romanticised…)

Gareth and Jason next find themselves on the Isle of Mann in 1588, where they witness a cat (called Dulcinea) and her kittens arrive by sea in a barrel, having escaped a shipwreck. And, guess what? The cat is tailless, and therefore the originator of the famous Manx cats to come (so another aetiological story). Alexander is clearly here going with one of the popular beliefs about Manx cats: that they came from one of the ships of the Spanish Armada that sunk off the coast of the Isle of Man in 1588 (on exactly the date he chooses). There is no evidence for this and Manx cats, I understand, are now believed to be the product of a natural mutation that happened on the island (perhaps because of inbreeding). But the idea of the strange cat breed coming over the sea has its narrative uses, as Dulcinea, the kittens, Gareth, and Jason, now stick together and explore the island. The human story in this episode is about a young girl who thinks herself ugly because of her unusual eyes (one blue, one brown, like those of some cats, actually) who learns to appreciate that: “Beauty is inside, not on the face… If a person thinks he’s ugly, why then he begins to act in an ugly, cruel way” (pp. 152-3). Dulcinea and her kittens stay in the Isle of Man and become ship-cats, while Gareth and Jason move on to their next adventure.

Figure 6: one of the cover designs for Time Cat

This next episode is set in Germany in 1600, where things start feeling darker. Gareth and Jason find themselves in the midst of the witch-hunts of Early Modern Europe, when cats were equally persecuted as witches’ familiars, or demonic creatures. They manage to save an innocent woman who is falsely accused for witchcraft, but the end of this story doesn’t feel as neat and comfortable as previous ones. It looks like Jason is gradually coming to terms with more difficult moral questions, with Gareth as a wise guide.

And this emphasis on growing up and learning about things that may be more complex and less black-and-white continues in last episode, set in America in 1775, just as the American War of Independence is about to break out. Gareth and Jason meet a peddler-cum-teacher-cum-inventor who travels around Massachusetts selling “nature’s finest mousetraps”, i.e. kittens, while at the same time passes on messages to and from the Sons of Liberty and facilitates the forthcoming War of Independence. As Professor Parker aptly says: “countries are like cats. They like to settle down in their own ways. But they want their freedom, too. They’ll fight for it if they have to.” (p. 193).

The ending of this story is, again, a melancholy one, and the book then ends very quickly after that, with Jason back in his own home in the 20th century (I guess they’re in the USA anyway so this is only a travel in time, not time and place at the same time) and Gareth giving a rather didactic speech about everything Jason has learned in their time-traveling journey: how to grow up. (That’s the sort of thing modern children’s literature takes great pains to avoid announcing, but it remains a perennial theme, perhaps for inevitable reasons).

The novel includes some brilliant observations of cat appearance and behaviour – see, for example, the lovely opening of the novel:

Gareth was a black cat with orange eyes. Sometimes, when he hunched his shoulders and put down his ears, he looked like an owl. When he stretched, he looked like a trickle of oil or a pair of black silk pajamas. When he sat on a window ledge, his eyes half-shut and his tail curled around him, he looked like a secret. (p. 1)

Figure 7: one of the cover designs for Time Cat

There are numerous such scenes, like the demonstration of Gareth’s hunting “moves” in the Rome/Britain episode (again, beautifully observed and really well-rendered), and various moments of Gareth expressing affection by purring, and rubbing his head and tail against ankles.

There are also a number of “proverbial” phrases of feline nature, most of the time pronounced by Gareth, but also by Jason who really does know his cat! For example:

(Jason:) “A cat can belong to you, but you can’t own him. There’s a difference.” (p. 20) (Gareth:) “I enjoy a comfortable bed… but if there isn’t one around, it doesn’t matter. Any bed is soft to a cat.” (p. 28) (Gareth:) “The only thing a cat worries about is what’s happening right now. As we tell the kittens, you can only wash one paw at a time.” (p. 125) (Gareth:) “It takes patience. But that’s one thing cats have a lot of. Why, even a kitten knows if you wait long enough someone’s bound to open the door.” (p. 184)

And, at the same time, Alexander finds really apt moments to point to parallels between how people behave to cats and much larger themes such as power, faith and spirituality, self-belief and confidence, and duty and freedom.

I hope more people will discover this book. It doesn’t only fall within the sub-category of time-travel children’s fantasy, but also fits with some aspects of animal fantasy. And, as one would expect, there was a real cat which gave Alexander the inspiration for the adventures of Gareth and Jason: his cat (one of many), Solomon, who was good at appearing and disappearing as if by magic.

Let me close with Jason’s words to Gareth, which feel like an appropriate ending to this post:

“In Egypt they thought you were a god. Here [Germany during the witch-hunts] they think you’re a demon. Won’t anyone ever understand you’re a cat?”

Figure 8: one of the cover designs for Time Cat

[i] There are a number of issues in Alexander’s portrayal of “Celtic” Britain and Ireland in  Time Cat  too, but that deserves an entire blog post in and of itself. I might write it one day, and I might call it “Of Celts and Cats”!

Alexander , Lloyd.  Time Cat: The Remarkable Journeys of Jason and Gareth . New York: Puffin Books, 1996 [1963].

Cooper Gay, Margaret. How to Live with a Cat . [S.l.]: Simon & Schuster, 1969[1946].

Dumville, David N. Saint Patrick A.D. 493–1993 . Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1993.

Jacobs, James S. “Lloyd  Alexander : A Critical Biography.” EdD diss., University of Georgia, 1978.

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ISBN: B0007DKJRY

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Format: Paperback

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Book Overview

Gareth doesn't have nine lives, but he is definitely not an ordinary cat. For one thing, he can talk. For another, he has magical powers that Jason never dreamed of. "Anywhere, any time, any country,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

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What a wonderful adventure, cats in time book review, purrfect, time travel with time cat, best book i have ever read, popular categories.

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Time Cat: Lloyd Alexander’s first book

Posted by Rebecca Fisher ´s rating: 3 | Lloyd Alexander | Children , Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Published way back in 1963, Time Cat was the first book ever written by Lloyd Alexander , and as such, exists as an interesting comparison to many of his later books, with echoes of plots and characters that will later be used in his more famous and sophisticated works. It is quite a simplistic book, with a straightforward story told in clear but sparse prose, but there are certainly traces of the excellence that is to come in Alexander’s later books, particularly the award-winning The Prydain Chronicles .

Jason has been sent to his bedroom in disgrace, only to find that his black, orange-eyed cat can talk! Gareth informs him that rather than the oft-believed saying that cats have nine lives, it is in fact the ability to visit nine lives that make cats so special — and Gareth offers to take Jason on the journey that he intends to take that very moment. What follows is not so much a single over-arching story as a series of short-stories detailing the adventures that take place in nine different locations across time that Jason and Gareth make. Starting in Egypt in 2700BC and working their way forward to America in 1775, Jason learns about history, personal wisdom, and himself, before finally returning to his own time. In each location there is some commentary on mankind’s progress and how it relates to their relationship with cats, moving from Egypt in which cats were venerated as gods, to Germany in the 1600s, in which they were destroyed as devils. As Jason puts it: “In Egypt they thought you were a god. Here they think you’re a demon. Won’t anyone ever understand you’re a cat?”

It is an odd format for the book to take, as each “time-zone” is only given two chapters each (except for the second-to-last one, which has three) making the adventures fly past rather swiftly, with little in the way of delving deeply into the context of the time and places they visit. Although there is a small amount of intrigue or danger to each location, the two time-travelers move on quickly from place to place. However, it is not the intention of the book to create a deep, drawn out story, and it would be unwise to approach this book expecting this. Instead, look for a breezy, fast-paced time-travel adventure with hidden undercurrents of awareness and intellectual growth. Alexander is the master of hiding bits of profound wisdom in his stories without ever becoming preachy (not even C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman have fully mastered this art). There are too many to list here, though I can’t resist adding one of my favourites: “You can say some of the loveliest things in the world — without words.”

As well as witch-hunts in Germany, cat-worship in Egypt and the Revolution in America, the story also involves a love story on the Isle of Man, Leonardo da Vinci’s youth in Italy, and the beginning of Saint Patrick’s missionary work in Ireland — not to mention visits to Japan, Britain and Peru. In each story, Alexander incorporates his love of cats and has some rather beautiful things to say about their intelligence, beauty, liveliness and ability to bring comfort to human beings. Cat-lovers will adore this book, and Alexander follows up on his ‘ode to cats’ with Dream-of-Jade: The Emperor’s Cat and The Cat Who Wished to Be a Man .

It’s not all perfect: the time-traveling itself is a little spotty (there’s no rhyme or reason to shifting from place to place), and often Alexander takes short-cuts in the storytelling — for example, Jason’s sea voyage from Rome to Britain is described in the space of a couple of lines, which is a little disconcerting — just how long is Jason away from home exactly? Likewise, Jason himself makes a rather bland protagonist, as although he’s polite and kind-hearted, he doesn’t have much in the way of a personality! More reactive than proactive throughout the entire book, he acts mainly as a vessel for the experiences and life lessons that Alexander has strewn within the story.

However, as long as you know what to expect from Time Cat , it’s a highly enjoyable read. It’s especially fun spotting several story components that will pop up again in a slightly-different form in other books, particularly the red-gold haired figure of Diahan, a direct precursor to Princess Elionwy, who at one stage: “refused to speak to [Jason], except to remind him, several times, that she wasn’t speaking to him.” Sound familiar?

REBECCA FISHER, with us since January 2008, earned a Masters degree in literature at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Her thesis included a comparison of how C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman each use the idea of mankind’s Fall from Grace to structure the worldviews presented in their fantasy series. Rebecca is a firm believer that fantasy books written for children can be just as meaningful, well-written and enjoyable as those for adults, and in some cases, even more so. Rebecca lives in New Zealand. She is the winner of the 2015 Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best SFF Fan Writer.

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January 5th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher ´s rating: 3 | Lloyd Alexander | Children , Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |

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Libraries are full of books about great cats. This one is special.

Caleb Carr’s memoir, ‘My Beloved Monster,’ is a heart-rending tale of human-feline connection

Over the years, my wife and I have been blessed with 15 cats, three rescued from the streets of Brooklyn, three from barns near our home in Vermont, one from a Canadian resort and the others from the nearby shelter, where my wife has volunteered as a “cat whisperer” for the most emotionally scarred of its feline inhabitants for years. Twelve of our beloved pets have died (usually in our arms), and we could lose any of our current three cats — whose combined age is roughly 52 — any day now. So, I am either the best person to offer an opinion on Caleb Carr’s memoir, “ My Beloved Monster ,” or the worst.

For the many who have read Carr’s 1994 novel, “The Alienist,” an atmospheric crime story set in 19th-century New York, or watched the Netflix series it inspired, Carr’s new book might come as something of a surprise. “My Beloved Monster” is a warm, wrenching love story about Carr and his cat, a half-wild rescue named Masha who, according to the subtitle of his book, in fact rescued Carr. The author is, by his own admission, a curmudgeon, scarred by childhood abuse, living alone and watching his health and his career go the way of all flesh.

What makes the book so moving is that it is not merely the saga of a great cat. Libraries are filled with books like that, some better than others. It’s the 17-year chronicle of Carr and Masha aging together, and the bond they forged in decline. (As Philip Roth observed, “Old age isn’t a battle; old age is a massacre.”) He chronicles their lives, beginning with the moment the animal shelter begs Carr to bring the young lioness home because the creature is so ferocious she unnerves the staff — “You have to take that cat!” one implores.

Interspersed throughout Carr’s account of his years with Masha are his recollections of all the other cats he has had in his life, going back to his youth in Manhattan. And there are a lot. Cats often provided him comfort after yet another torment his father, the writer Lucien Carr , and stepfather visited upon him. Moreover, Carr identifies so deeply with the species that as a small child he drew a self-portrait of a boy with a cat’s head. He knows a great deal about cats and is eager to share his knowledge, for instance about the Jacobson’s organ in the roof of their mouths that helps them decide if another creature is predator or prey. His observations are always astute: “Dogs tend to trust blindly, unless and until abuse teaches them discretion. … Cats, conversely, trust conditionally from the start.”

Carr, now 68, was a much younger man when he adopted Masha. Soon, however, they were joined at the hip. As the two of them bonded, the writer found himself marveling at what he believed were their shared childhood traumas, which move between horrifying and, in Carr’s hands, morbidly hilarious: “I began to accept my father’s behavior in the spirit with which he intended it … he was trying to kill me.” Man and cat shared the same physical ailments, including arthritis and neuropathy, possibly caused by physical violence in both cases. Carr allowed Masha, a Siberian forest cat, to go outside, a decision many cat owners may decry, but he defends it: “Masha was an entirely different kind of feline,” and keeping her inside “would have killed her just as certainly as any bear or dog.” Indeed, Masha took on fishers and bears (yes, bears!) on Carr’s wooded property in Upstate New York.

But bears and dogs are humdrum fare compared with cancer and old age, which come for both the novelist and his cat. Carr’s diagnosis came first, and his first concern was whether he would outlive Masha. (The existence of the book gives us the answer he didn’t have at the time.) Illness adds new intensity to the human-feline connection: “Coming back from a hospital or a medical facility to Masha was always particularly heartening,” Carr writes, “not just because she’d been worried and was glad to see me, but because she seemed to know exactly what had been going on … and also because she was so anxious to show that she hadn’t been scared, that she’d held the fort bravely.”

Sometimes, perhaps, Carr anthropomorphizes too much and exaggerates Masha’s language comprehension, or gives her more human emotion than she had. But maybe not. Heaven knows, I see a lot behind my own cats’ eyes. Moreover, it’s hard to argue with a passage as beautiful as this: “In each other’s company, nothing seemed insurmountable. We were left with outward scars. … But the only wounds that really mattered to either of us were the psychic wounds caused by the occasional possibility of losing each other; and those did heal, always, blending and dissolving back into joy.”

Like all good memoirs — and this is an excellent one — “My Beloved Monster” is not always for the faint of heart. Because life is not for the faint of heart. But it is worth the emotional investment, and the tissues you will need by the end, to spend time with a writer and cat duo as extraordinary as Masha and Carr.

Chris Bohjalian is the best-selling author of 24 books. His most recent novel, “The Princess of Las Vegas,” was published last month.

My Beloved Monster

Masha, the Half-Wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me

By Caleb Carr

Little, Brown. 435 pp. $29

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‘Founders Day’ Review: Political Rage in a Small-Town Slasher

Founders Day is an entertaining slasher that under-delivers on political satire, but showcases a fun new slasher villain.

Table of Contents

What is Founders Day About?

Founders Day is a slasher movie set in a small town with politically-charged atmosphere. The story takes place in the city of Fairwood where the political divide is getting heated. Adding fuel to the already combustible situation is the disappearance of Melissa, daughter of the candidate challenging the incumbent mayor’s re-election. Melissa is missing and presumed dead at the hands of a masked killer, and the killings continue as Fairwood’s tricentennial celebration, Founders Day, draws near.

Founders Day was directed by Erik Bloomquist, who also acts in the movie in a supporting role. Erik and his brother Carson Bloomquist cowrote the script for Founders Day . The Bloomquist brothers previously directed and cowrote the campground horror comedy She Came from the Woods (2022), the supernatural horror movie Night at the Eagle Inn (2021), and the vampire film Ten Minutes to Midnight (2020).

Founders Day stars Naomi Grace, Devin Druid, Amy Hargreaves, Jayce Bartok, Andrew Stewart-Jones, William Russ, Emilia McCarthy, Olivia Nikkanen, Adam Weppler, Tyler James White, Erik Bloomquist, Catherine Curtin, Kate Edmonds, and Dylan Slade.

Founders Day Review

Though labeled as a “political slasher,” the political satire angle is overstated by many reviewers and even by some of the film’s marketing. Founders Day does not have the same focus on political commentary and satire as something like The Hunt (2020) or even The Purge franchise, nor does it ever seem like it’s trying to be as political as those films. The politics in Founders Day are somewhat vague, and it’s there mostly as a way of adding an increased sense of unease within the community. The movie doesn’t make any real statements about political affiliations other than maybe “politicians and political rage are bad,” which is a very safe thing to say. Frankly, minimizing the political satire is a good thing. We get enough political rage in real life, and we don’t necessarily need more of it in a slasher movie that already has a surprisingly complex plot.

Founders Day is a whodunit style of slasher with a mystery inspired by the likes of Scream (1996) and its sequels and imitators. There are a good number of plausible suspects introduced, and trying to guess who the killer is can be fun if somewhat frustrating. There’s a great moment a little more than halfway through the movie that reshapes the mystery by answering some questions while providing plenty of new ones. It’s an extremely well-done sequence that reestablishes interest in a plot that might be starting to feel too conventional for some.

Unfortunately the final fifteen minutes of the movie are spent over-explaining everything, and almost all of those fifteen minutes are needed to spell out the convoluted plot. Avoiding specific spoilers, it turns out that the mystery is too complex to be truly compelling. The basic motivation for the killing spree is interesting, but there are numerous red herrings baked into the plot which makes it all feel unsatisfying. All of the misdirection makes sense in a weird way when it’s explained, but it also makes attempting to solve the entire mystery as it’s happening fairly unrewarding.

Where Founder Day excels is by being a slightly cheesy slasher movie. In many ways Founders Day feels like an homage to the early-to-mid-90s era of slashers when the killers’ gimmicks became over-the-top and the tone of the films hovered between horrific and comedic. The killer in Founders Day , known as The Founder, would fit right in with the killers found in movies like Uncle Sam (1996) and Dr. Giggles (1992), and even later slashers like The Tripper (2006). The Founder has a memorable presence with their weird smile, powdered wig, and bladed gavel, and it would be easy to build a low-budget franchise around the character.

The tone of Founders Day does fluctuate a little. The movie isn’t really a comedy , but some obvious attempts at humor are made that end up feeling slightly odd in the context of the drama and horror happening around it. Also, the drama can veer into melodrama at times, but then other dramatic moments might actually be attempting black comedy. It’s rather inconsistent, and it probably would’ve helped if Founders Day had leaned more into any specific tone rather than trying to navigate between many. To be fair though, lots of 90s-era slashers fall into the same traps, so it’s at least consistent with other movies of its kind.

Overall though, Founders Day is enjoyable. If you’re a big fan of slasher movies, you’ll be used to many of the imperfections in Founders Day , and they might not even bother you much. The final third of the movie stumbles towards the finish, but the first two-thirds of Founders Day are quite good.

Who Will Enjoy Founders Day ?

Founders Day is a good movie for slasher fans who want something that feels like a throwback to the pretty-good slashers of the 1990s. The kills in the movie are nicely done (with a combination of practical effects and CGI), the main character is likeable and sympathetic, and the story is ridiculous in a low-budget slasher kind of way. Maybe most importantly, the killer is interesting. For a light and fun slasher flick, having a killer you want to watch is of great importance, and Founders Day delivers in that category.

Further Reading

• Prey for the Bride Review: A Fine Slasher that Begins Better Than It Ends
• Slay Review: A Goofy Horror Comedy with a Fabulous Heart
• Best Slasher Movies of All Time
• Best High School Horror Movies

Meet The Author

Chris has a degree in film studies at Temple University’s campus in Tokyo, Japan. He is a renowned expert on horror cinema.

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Time Cat: The Remarkable Journeys of Jason and Gareth Hardcover – April 1, 2003

• Print length 224 pages
• Language English
• Grade level 3 - 6
• Dimensions 5.68 x 0.91 x 8.62 inches
• Publisher Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
• Publication date April 1, 2003
• ISBN-10 0805072705
• ISBN-13 978-0805072709
• See all details

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About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Henry Holt and Co. (BYR); 0 edition (April 1, 2003)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0805072705
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0805072709
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 7 - 11 years, from customers
• Grade level ‏ : ‎ 3 - 6
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.3 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.68 x 0.91 x 8.62 inches
• #8,802 in Children's Cat Books (Books)
• #44,401 in Children's Fantasy & Magic Books
• #112,157 in Children's Literature (Books)

About the author

Lloyd alexander.

Few writers have inspired as much affection and interest among readers young and old as Lloyd Alexander. At one point, however, it seemed unlikely that he would ever be a writer at all. His parents could not afford to send him to college. And so when a Philadelphia bank had an opening for a messenger boy, he went to work there. Finally, having saved some money, he quit and went to a local college. Dissatisfied with not having learned enough to be a writer he left at the end of one term. Adventure, he decided was the best way. The United States had already entered World War II. Convinced that here was a chance for real deeds of derring-do, he joined the army -- and was promptly shipped to Texas where he became, in disheartening succession an artilleryman, a cymbal player in the band, an organist in the post chapel, and a first-aid man. At last, he was assigned to a military intelligence center in Maryland. There he trained as a member of a combat team to be parachuted into France to work with the Resistance. "This, to my intense relief, did not happen," says Alexander. Instead, Alexander and his group sailed to Wales to finish their training. This ancient, rough-hewn country, with its castles, mountains, and its own beautiful language made a tremendous impression on him. But not until years later did he realize he had been given a glimpse of another enchanted kingdom. Alexander was sent to Alsace-Lorraine, the Rhineland, and southern Germany. When the war ended, he was assigned to a counterintelligence unit in Paris. Later he was discharged to attend the University of Paris. While a student he met a beautiful Parisian girl, Janine, and they soon married. Life abroad was fascinating, but eventually Alexander longed for home. The young couple went back to Drexel Hill, near Philadelphia, where Alexander wrote novel after novel which publishers unhesitatingly turned down. To earn his living, he worked as a cartoonist, advertising writer, layout artist, and associate editor for a small magazine. It took seven years of constant rejection before his first novel was at last published. During the next ten years, he wrote for adults. And then he began writing for young people.Doing historical research for Time Cat he discovered material on Welsh mythology. The result was The Book of Three and the other chronicles of Prydain, the imaginary kingdom being something like the enchanted land of Wales. In The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen Alexander explored yet another fantastic world. Evoking an atmosphere of ancient China, this unique multi-layered novel was critically acclaimed as one of his finest works. Trina Schart Hyman illustrated The Fortune-tellers as a Cameroonian folktale sparkling with vibrant images, keen insight and delicious wit. Most of the books have been written in the form of fantasy. But fantasy, Alexander believes, is merely one of many ways to express attitudes and feelings about real people, real human relationships and problems

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