THE DRUMMOND WILL
DVD region 2. Crabtree Films.

The Drummond Will has been gaining rave reviews at festivals across the world, and it’s not hard to see why – this gleefully eccentric and somewhat nostalgic black comedy is hugely entertaining.

Phillip James and Mark Oosterveen play a couple of mismatched brothers who return to the small village where they grew up for their father’s funeral. Finding that they now own his rundown cottage, they visit the house only to find an old man hiding in a wardrobe, clutching a couple of hundred grand in cash. Locking him in while they figure out what to do, the pair soon find themselves with a corpse on their hands. This is only the start of their problems though, as soon more and more bodies start to pile up – all the result of unfortunate accidents – and a mystery blackmailer is threatening to tell the police everything unless the cash is handed over.

Shot in black and white, this low budget indie film comes across like Withnail & I meets Shallow Grave, as the two brothers bicker and the bodies pile up thanks to the stash of money. With pin-sharp dialogue, two personable leads, solid direction from Alan Butterworth, the film skilfully mixes some genuinely hilarious moments with more subtle, deeply dark humour as the eccentric supporting cast are killed off one by one. It’s nice to see a British film that isn’t trying to be aggressively hip, and The Drummond Will often brings to mind old school British comedies, from Ealing to oddball efforts like The Wrong Box.

A fine entry into the long line of films set in eccentric English villages that have dark secrets, this is a compellingly entertaining slice of gallows humour, and heartily recommended..

DAVID FLINT

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