Scary Man Movie Review

Well here's an odd duck -- I mean, an odd doc -- from the Netherlands, tracing man's quiet war in that country against the birds.

Far more involved than you'd think, Scary Man (referring to scarecrows) features interviews with farmers, gardeners, airport workers, and bird hunters, all of whom have their own methods for dealing with an airborne plague that destroys crops or sends airplanes crashing into the earth. The "harmless" sparrow consumes the contents of a greenhouse. Gulls that feed on trash in a landfill spill over onto the runways next door.

Thanks to idosyncratic Dutch law, genocide of the birds is not generally an option, so the hapless earthbound denizens of the country resort to flare guns, shrieking speakers, balloon scarecrows, nets & traps, stun poisons, and more. It comes as little surprise when few of these tactics prove effective.

At 48 minutes, Scary Man is barely a feature film, but it's a fun little ride that beats watching an hour of television by far. As a documentary, it is well crafted and wastes little time getting to the guts of its story. As a work of art, it is simultaneously grotesque and eye-opening, ensuring that you'll never look at our feathered friends the same way again.

Aka Vogelvrij.



Dead ducks.