Creature feature enthusiasts will know that there’s been a flourishing amount of genre film coming out of Australia the past few years. Done with far smaller budgets compared to the massive, over-inflated budgets of Hollywood, these productions are often very indie and put together locally. One major player coming out of this Australian genre film movement is director Luke Sparke, recognized now for his dinosaur flick, Primitive War, which hit cinemas this past month in the United States. Before his military action film, Luke directed a series of other sci-fi and horror movies, including a giant spider film with an intriguing premise: Scurry.
The film sees a pretty ordinary man, only referred to as Mark, trapped in the rubble of a city during a major apocalyptic event. As he navigates towards any potential exit – and away from the creatures – he meets another survivor, Kate. She is initially extremely apprehensive and orders him around with a firearm, ensuring he stays in the back as they crawl around, hoping to find some way to get above ground again before they both bleed out. From there, the two learn to survive in the claustrophobic environment.
Scurry’s big selling point is that it is a one-take film, and for the most part, it’s pretty great at doing that. Granted, there are a few moments that break this, and you can tell a cut was inserted. This is pretty typical for most of these movies, but for an indie production, the film did do a fairly admirable job at not only maintaining this consistent movement, but also not making it a motion sickness-inducing run for a barf bag. It’s got more steady camerawork, instead navigating around our protagonists rather than being from their perspective like a found footage film would be. In that regard, I found it especially refreshing, even if there were some flaws.
Unfortunately, the film suffers the most from being “fine” in most other regards. While the effects are pretty good for what the film is, the two performances we follow for a pretty stretched out hour and forty minutes are just… okay. Just when Kate begins to stop hyperventilating and saying the f-word every other line, we get a pretty average, cliché set of sentimental moments that make the two stop bickering with each other so that they can continue on and survive. The music is pretty unremarkable as well, just serving as just generic background music where it needs to be placed. It’s a shame, because the creature designs are interesting looking, the premise is solid, and there’s a great deal of care put into the camerawork in the film, giving it plenty of potential that it just doesn’t quite live up to.
If you’re looking for a new creature feature to watch on a quiet October evening during your horror marathons, Scurry is a serviceable romp in giving audiences a new monster movie to watch this Halloween. It isn’t a mandatory viewing nor will it be taking home any awards, but if you’re a die-hard b-movie enthusiast, it may make for an entertaining enough view, as it’s not bad, but just kind of there amongst many other monster movies.
Overall Score: 5/10
Scurry has great cinematography, making great use of its one-take gimmick, but its cliche-ridden script burdens what could be a sci-fi film with potential.
Scurry hits major VOD rental services on October 3rd.
