Split Tooth Media Presents: The Films of Joel Potrykus

Read all of Bennett Glace’s collected writings, interviews, and podcasts on the independent filmmaker and his collaborators

One of the first pitches Bennett Glace submitted upon joining Split Tooth in 2019 was an essay on the films of Joel Potrykus. It was published during our inaugural October Horror series as “Midwestern Monsters,” a two-part exploration of all of the Michigan filmmaker’s features to date. In it, he wrote,

“Through four features, Joel Potrykus has carved out his own unique niche in American independent cinema and created his own unique, instantly recognizable kind of monster. A pyromaniacal comedian, a petty scammer, a would-be necromancer and a childish gamer… Most isolate themselves to the extreme and each struggles with the torches and pitchforks of a loosely defined ‘system.’ “We belong alone,” they seem to say. Each, too, holds a grudge. Their efforts are, at least in part, an attempt to fight back against a world that’s indifferent at its best and utterly inhospitable at its worst.”

Glace has since conducted interviews and made podcast appearances with Potrykus and his greatest collaborator, Joshua Burge. Over the years, he has amassed one of the most thorough examinations of the filmmaker’s oeuvre thus far. To coincide with Glace’s review of Vulcanizadora (2024), we have assembled a new homepage that collects all of Glace’s writings and interviews covering Potrykus and his Midwestern Monsters. Scroll through to read about the work of one of American cinema’s most exciting and original artists.