Harrison Atkins' sophomore feature "Sour Minnows" opens with a scene designed to unsettle: six men lying face down on a deserted Los Angeles street, licking the pavement. It is a stomach-churning introduction to a film that defies conventional storytelling, blending hangout comedy with surreal body-snatching horror in ways that left its Fantasia Festival premiere audience both mystified and delighted.
The film follows roommates Ricky, played by David Brown of "Jury Duty," and Tepper, played by Chase Williamson of "The Guest," who accidentally stumble into a different plane of existence during a routine grocery run. As increasingly bizarre events unfold around them and Ricky's girlfriend Aura, portrayed by Suzanna Son of "Red Rocket," Ricky falls prey to "The Yellow Thing" — an entity that temporarily inhabits his body and wears his skin like a suit.
From Poetry to Screenplay
Speaking with Variety after the film's world premiere at Montreal's Fantasia Festival, Atkins explained that "Sour Minnows" emerged from a period of creative frustration. He had spent years attempting to launch a larger-scale project in Los Angeles, writing scripts he acknowledged were inherently unconventional. The project went through approximately 40 drafts with actors already attached, yet progress remained painfully slow — two steps forward, one step back.
Atkins described taking meetings that felt disconnected from his artistic vision, including brunches with individuals who praised his script while conceding they could never finance it. This experience led him to an important realization: he was sanding down the rough edges of his work to fit a commercial mold. He began asking himself what he would create if he made a film that was not for sale at all.
The answer came in the form of poetry. Atkins started writing verse that gradually took the shape of a film. What began as an eight-page document expanded to over 80 pages, existing somewhere between a screenplay and a poem. Though uncertain how he would ultimately produce it, he continued developing the material until it reached what he described as a boiling point — he had to make it or he was going to die.
Finding Truth in the Weird and Aberrant
Atkins' approach to surrealism is rooted in a desire to access sensations that language cannot capture. He cited the Edward Hopper quote, "If I could say it in words, there'd be no reason to paint," as a guiding principle. He is drawn to cinema that reminds viewers the medium is still young, seeking to evoke moods and tones impossible to express through other art forms.
What others label as weird, Atkins considers almost aberrant. He described chasing a juicy sensation found at the intersection of opposing meanings. Rather than overintellectualizing where his images come from, he tries not to look a gift horse in the mouth, allowing whatever emerges from his imagination to flow freely into his work.
He noted a recurring pattern of supernatural and off-kilter imagery invading his projects, whether as a byproduct or by necessity. These elements surface as he searches for what he called a transcendent third thing — something that emerges from the friction between two opposing concepts.