TL;DR – A strong premise brings you into this world, but the narrative does not quite have the six legs to get all the way to the end.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Setting the Scene

This has been an excellent year for Sparke Films, with its flagship Primitive War showing that you absolutely can do a dinosaur film without the word Jurassic in the title. But that was a big, bombastic work, and I was interested to see what they could do on a more concentrated effort, and today we find out.   

So, to set the scene, chaos reigns as something is causing a city to be evacuated and destroyed in equal measure. At the bottom of a sinkhole lies Mark (Jamie Costa), who had the unfortunate luck of standing on the road as it gave out underneath him. Stuck and with no phone connection, things are not looking good for him, nor is that car hanging precariously over the edge, filling anyone with confidence. There better not be a helicopter crashing from the sky that will make this situation worse, and what was that chittering sound in the background?

Visual Approach

The hook for this film is that it is filmed in the style of it all being one take, which, given the monster attack vibe they are going for, is an interesting choice. Of course, it’s not truly one take; indeed, multiple shots are stitched together to create the illusion. Though to be fair, that is all of cinema when you get down to the brass tacks. There are a lot of digital transitions and camera pan wipes, which are fine for what they are trying to do, especially given the budget. However, given the mostly underground setting, I like when they hit their cuts in the dark, it was a clever way of making that setting work for you. There are some awkward aspects, like whenever they have to show you what is on a phone/camera screen, but that is fine.

Actors

Much of the film is contained with just the two actors in a confined space, and on the whole, I think they did a good job. Mark is a bit clueless at the start, and takes some time to believe the danger, but also, you would think that would be plausible in this scenario when he has not seen what others have seen. A lot of the film is based on the tension between these two characters trying to survive together, when their natural instinct is to go it alone. That tension has a lot of space to give you some good character moments. It couldn’t have been a comfortable shoot in such confined sets, so credit to the actors for making it work. Unfortunately, the film does not explore much more thematically than that, so it starts to feel long in the tooth towards the end, and the film does not quite stick the landing.   

Monsters

Like most Monster films working in this space, the film is better when you don’t know what is hunting them. One of the best aspects of the monsters was the sound design; indeed, the sound design for the whole film is one of its strongest pillars. The idea that they are insectoid burrowing up from the ground and then going explosive on the surface is a solid idea. I mean, it makes no sense once you think about it, but a film like this works best when you don’t have time to work through the rationalities because you are too busy running for your life. They are also a successful menace to our heroes trying to escape. The dangerousness does seem to vary between when they are around our leads and when they are around everyone else, but I doubt you would find a movie working in this space that didn’t have that as an issue at least once.   

Conclusion

In the end, do we recommend Scurry? While individually, there are a lot of factors that are promising, when they come together, unfortunately, you get more of an unwieldy beast. While the choice to do a one-shot film is an interesting one, there was probably a tighter 90-minute experience in here that could have been a more nimble production. Have you watched Scurry? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked Scurry, we would recommend 1917 to you because it is probably still the high-water mark for one-shot films, though that is a title that is still up for grabs. Or Love and Monsters, which also likes the super-charged insectoids.  

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Scurry
Directed by – Luke Sparke
Written by – Tom Evans
Music by – Frederik Wiedmann
Cinematography by – Wade Muller
Edited by – Luke Sparke
Production/Distribution Companies – Signature Entertainment, Filmmode Entertainment, Let it Be Entertainment & Sparke Films
Starring – Jamie Costa & Emalia
Rating – Around an Australia: M