COUNTRYCIDE: a short film by James Crow

Countrycide (2012)
Directed by: James Crow
Written by: James Crow
Starring: Dave Gibson, Matthew James Wells, Vanessa Leah Stevenson, Yohanna Farrell

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/37804429[/vimeo]

REVIEWED BY DR LENERA, Official  HCF Critic

Despite having clearly had too much to drink, a young man decides to drive.  Sometime later, he awakes to find himself seemingly in the middle of nowhere ,though actually he is in a Kentish wood and the  inhabitants are not happy to find him there……

If you read this site’s review of, and indeed watched, Cold Turkey, [which can be viewed here, along with review: https://horrorcultfilms.co.uk/2012/01/cold-turkey-a-short-film-by-james-crow-and-lee-musson/ ],  which was a collaboration between Countrycide’s director/writer/producer James Crow and Lee Musson, you will know that Crow has considerable talent.  Countrycide confirms that he has a great interest in, and knack for dealing with, problems we face in our society today, issues which are constantly around us and just won’t go away.  Cold Turkey was an examination of drug addiction and asked questions of how to deal with it, mixing intense realism with the horror movie.   Countrycide takes the issue of drunk driving and also mingles in some horror elements, but this time takes the form mostly of a very black comedy.  It is described as being “made in the vein of League Of Gentlemen and Psychoville”, and though I have never actually seen Psychoville, I certainly agree with the League Of Gentlemen comparison, though to me it is another use of that great horror situation, a situation which always seems to work, where someone finds themselves in a place seemingly away from ‘normal’ civilisation and the locals seem very strange and scary indeed.

So when the foolish young lad awakes, after an obvious crash we don’t see [and don’t need to], somewhere in the Kentish countryside, the tone is one of dark comedy with growing fear.  The locals are all very weird and even freaky; one wears what looks like a Michael Myers mask with mouse ears, whiskers and the like, and seem to have rather too close links with the local wildlife.  If you like your humour a bit twisted, then you will certainly laugh a few times; I especially loved a bit where a Warden [brilliantly played with just the right amount of parody by Vanessa Leah Stevenson, who received a Best Actress nomination at the Entry For 2 Days Laughter film competition 2012 – the film itself made the Judges Short List] pulls out the wrong photograph which is of…..well, I won’t ruin it!

These people may be certifiably bonkers, but they have pain and anger, and anyone who has lost someone due to a pissed-up idiot  driving a car may relate to them in a strange way, while of course people rarely think about the possible effects on other forms of life.  Though the tone of Countrycide is much lighter than that of Cold Turkey, it has the same ambiguity about the issue it deals with.  We quickly feel the driver’s fear and remorse, and don’t want anything bad to happen to him, but maybe he is asking for it…..is he?  Crow has two more movies in the planning: Waking The Witch and a feature production called A Suburban Fairytale, as well as having co-written the script for The Warning, so he is a busy guy and we at HCF certainly look forward to viewing these future projects with great  interest.