Canaries Review: Wales gets taken over by aliens wearing raincoats in this bizarre sci-fi, horror comedy.
Canaries Review
Steve Denis (Craig Russell, who also produces the film) is London’s 53rd most-listened-to DJ. For New Year he’s decided to go back home to Wales and host the party of all parties in the hopes of getting his new business off of the ground. Unfortunately for him, aliens have picked that same day and town to invade. Steve and his friends must defend their rural home from the invaders, who will make it to morning?
Canaries screens at Frightfest as part of the 1st Blood programme, and is the first feature film from director Peter Stray. Rather than choose to focus on one genre, Stray decides to create a hybrid of three – science fiction, horror and comedy – the result is a very mixed bag. The comedy is handled well, it’s very basic and British, but it works within the tone of the film. The horror comes over as rather camp, which should work given the jokey nature of the piece, but fails to really grip the audience. The sci-fi elements also feel a little overcooked. There’s too many sci-fi concepts stuffed into such a short time, and it all gets rather confusing. In addition to aliens, we get time-travel, shadowy government groups, and body-snatching sub-plots, all competing for very limited time.
Canaries Review
The cast give it their all, and clearly had a lark making the film. There’s an easy chemistry between everyone and their energy injects a lot of fun into the film. Everyone is playing for laughs and seem prepared to go to some extraordinary lengths to get a giggle or too. Canaries is a film that valiantly tries to be something akin to a Welsh Shaun of the Dead, but sadly fails to pull it off. There’s some interesting ideas here, but unfortunately it’s potentially too ambitious for a first time feature given the budgets involved.
Despite being in need of reigning in the story, Canaries offers a lot of comedy enjoyment. Best watched with a large audience and a vat of alcohol.
Canaries review by Kat Hughes, August 2017.
Canaries is currently playing as part of the Horror Channel Frighfest 2017 programme.
