Return of the Secaucus Seven

5/14/2023

**_The Indie blueprint for “The Big Chill”_** Seven former college friends from Boston meet at a cabin-in-the-woods in New Hampshire, along with a couple of others. They talk about where they were, where they are, where they’re going, plus other things, like romances ending or reigniting. "Return of the Secaucus Seven” (1980) is a cabin-in-the-woods drama without any boogeyman focusing on the lives of former ‘radicals’ in college, all of them around 30 years-old now. Obviously “The Big Chill” (1983) used this as a template, but they’re both different enough to appreciate. This one had a way smaller budget ($60,000) and no-name actors with only David Strathairn going on to any notable success, not counting director John Sayles, who plays peripheral character Howie. The biggest