Ponderosa Review: Bill Camp Stars In Unsettling And Bizarre Horror Comedy [Tribeca]

Some films thrive on their existence within the status quo, playing with familiar themes and concepts. Others, however, take a different approach, telling a story that is as bizarre as it is entertaining. Ponderosa, which premiered at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival, firmly falls into the latter category. It’s one of the most ambitious titles in recent years, which leaves just one question: Did the filmmakers do enough to make it work?

Ponderosa tells the story of Zeke (Jack Dylan Grazer), a teenager who lives a relatively quiet life alongside his mother in the suburbs of Illinois. The duo’s lives are turned upside down when the local chain buffet restaurant where Zeke’s mom works is threatened with closure. From there, a regular customer named George (Bill Camp) offers Zeke work at a construction site nearby, a kindness which proves to be just the beginning of a very strange and unsettling relationship.

George is intent on forging a surrogate father-son bond with Zeke. What follows is a subtle but tense clash between the two, as the teen attempts to resist the increasingly off-putting advances of a man determined to have a paternal role in his life.

Ponderosa’s Strangeness Is Its Greatest Strength

An old, shirtless man sitting with Zeke at a table in Ponderosa

Not only is the premise peculiar, but the broader world that director Rob Rice creates in his second feature film is even more so. Things feel slightly off – characters present like real people, but act in a way that borders on unusual. Zeke, for example, shows some effort to push George away, but is not exactly alarmed at the increasing presence of a strange man in his life. As a result, Ponderosa feels akin to something like Twin Peaks: The Return; that David Lynch series has a similar approach to conveying mundane, day-to-day life, with the director infusing an unsettling aura that permeates throughout. Rice does the same here, and it’s arguably the biggest swing that Ponderosa takes.

The outcome of these creative swings, and whether they’ll resonate with viewers, is likely to be highly subjective. Some may enjoy the strangeness, while others may be put off by it entirely. Those who don’t respond to Ponderosa will also likely be disappointed by the relative lack of fun or excitement, as the story is purposefully told in a way that doesn’t prioritize entertainment. The pacing is slow, and the characters are often unreactive, both of which contribute heavily to a final product that’s bound to polarize audiences. However, it’s hard not to applaud what Ponderosa is doing, even if some of the creative ideas work better in theory than in practice.

The similarities to Twin Peaks are even more apparent in Ponderosa’s final act. Without giving away too much, certain things happen in the story that are likely to leave audiences questioning what they saw and the meaning of the film overall. It’s the same sort of bamboozling narrative decisions that Lynch thrived on, and while they aren’t executed as well in Ponderosa (as high a bar as it gets, to be fair), it still leaves audiences with plenty to mull over once the credits roll.

The pacing is slow, and the characters are often unreactive, both of which contribute heavily to a final product that’s bound to polarize audiences.

Ponderosa is labeled as a horror comedy, and both aspects of the film have a similar subtleness to them, but generally work throughout. Bill Camp’s George is a good example of both, as what he’s doing with Zeke borders on predatory behavior, but there’s also something incredibly humorous about it. That feels, in part, a result of the sheer strangeness of George’s long-term goal, as well as the awkwardness that comes from Zeke’s relative ambivalence towards him. Camp does incredibly well to embody both of the film’s primary genres in his character, all while playing a role very different to the ones he usually takes on.

Ponderosa screened at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival.