Hundreds of Beavers

The term “Low Budget” gets thrown around a lot these days but Hundreds of Beavers really is low budget, probably a lot less than the average TV Episode of a not particularly effects driven or named actor led show these days and at no stage does it attempt to hide this fact, instead revelling in the absurdity of its lo-fi trappings, obvious bargain basement special effects and  people dressed in cheap costume-shop level depictions of the titular creature (and other creatures to boot).

Despite all of this it works. It is possible that it works so well because of these facts forcing the makers to focus their efforts into filmmaking in a way that can’t be solved with money. Certainly none of the cheapness did anything to dampen the reaction of the audience I saw it with. A bit like The Substance this is a film where the ending makes complete logical sense in context but sounds utterly ridiculous when you try to describe it.

“A cider maker goes on a drink fuelled frenzy to eliminate every beaver in the forest for destroying his barrels and to win the hand of the woman he loves.”

Along the way the narrative follows something more akin to a video game with grinding, side quests and random encounters replacing a traditional narrative structure and plot progression. Indeed narrative is possibly too strong word, this is instead a series of visual jokes strung together with the barest of plots to justify the sight gags but this isn’t a problem. There is the barest of plots enough to hang all of this on but only just. It really doesn’t need any more than that to function, indeed if you were to look at it too closely it probably wouldn’t work.

I loved every minute of it. It is at once an art-house delight in that no general fleapit is going to consider showing it as you couldn’t guarantee an audience but also utterly mainstream (sort of) in that it has absolutely no highbrow intention nor pretences to anything more meaningful If it’s funny it goes in the film. And if it’s really funny then the joke is repeated fifteen minutes later with a subtle or not so subtle twist to the previous joke. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. That is it for the entire running time in which if you don’t find the current joke funny it doesn’t matter as another will be along in the next twenty seconds. It’s the same model that Airplane! used to great effect but without the recourse to verbal gags as the film is silent, something I’m not sure is a perfectly understandable with the context stylistic choice or because recording dialogue costs money.

Okay, occasionally it feels a little bit repetitive and the middle does sort of sag a bit, I’d admit that this is a film that perhaps would benefit from a little cutting to take it further under the two hour mark than it is. And as it moves from the more repetitive early parts akin to the aforementioned level-grinding to the higher jeopardy ending the film flounders a little, but all of this is forgotten once we come the finale when the film takes another narrative leap into the unknown and pushes its absurdist boundaries. It is here that it becomes its most inventive as genres blend with an increased confidence almost as if the film was shot in chronological order and everyone feels more comfortable about what they can get away with. A mish-mash of kung-fu action / sci-fi horror / screwball comedy all meet in a way that shouldn’t work but still does despite of itself. The utter absurdity has become the reason at that stage, the driving force of everything.

This certainly has cult film written all over it. Whether it ever achieves more than that remains to be seen, I can see it becoming a staple of the late night circuit. What the makers do to follow this up is anybody’s guess. It is certainly difficult to figure out how something that is more commercially viable but retains the same sense of goofy energy that doesn’t feel forced could be made, and polish could rob it of some of the charm that is derived from how rough around the edges it occasionally is.

Is it worth watching?

I’d cautiously say yes. It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea but that doesn’t matter. Occasionally we all need a complete one off.