**By: Louisa Moore / www.ScreenZealots.com** This film was screened at Fantastic Fest I attend several major film festivals every year, and it’s always a pleasure to discover a gem that’s hiding somewhere in the cinematic void. Genre film fests are among the most interesting because they showcase independent horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and other avant-garde, eccentric, micro-budget works of art. That’s why director Mike Cheslik‘s “Hundreds of Beavers” was the perfect fit for Fantastic Fest. This black and white game of man vs. beaver is my favorite film that I saw at the festival this year, and it’s not even close. In what I can only describe as a Looney Tunes cartoon meets Charlie Chaplin meets “Cannibal! The Musical,” this dialogue-free film tells the story of an often-drunk applejack salesman who wants to become the greatest fur trapper in North America. The only way he can reach his goal is to defeat hundreds of beavers in the snow-covered woods. It’s a simple plot, but the humor is on point and the situations our hero finds himself in are absolutely hilarious. Those with a penchant for slapstick will appreciate the whimsy that defines the entire film. Although this is a silent film with no dialogue, it’s engrossing from the get-go. To make a project like this so interesting takes a different kind of skill from a filmmaking team, and Cheslik along with co-writer Ryland Brickson Cole Tews have an intuitive flair for the farcical and absurd. You’d think the one hour and forty eight minute run time would be excessive, but it doesn’t feel overly long at all. That’s just astounding and is a testament to how strong the storytelling is. To reveal too many plot points would ruin the surprises because this is a film about discovery in the moment. Even the look of the beavers is hysterical, and when paired with goofy, exaggerated facial expressions and scenes that are reminiscent of Wile E. Coyote chasing the Roadrunner, it’s easy to become engrossed in the absurdity of it all. As the trapper begins to eliminate his furry foes one by one, crude animation registers the beaver kills. His traps become more inventive, clever, and outrageous as he embarks on his quest to annihilate a forest full of beavers. The film ends with a spectacular sled and snowball chase finale that’s as exciting as it is ridiculous, and the humor drifts between dark and lighthearted with ease. “Hundreds of Beavers” is a true achievement in oddball independent filmmaking, and I am here for every last drop of it.

This is a fantastic "wait for it" film. Pleasantly surprised.

Hunky "Jean" (Ryland Tews) has quite a successful little cider business until the pesky beavers manage to destabilise the whole enterprise leaving him homeless with nothing but the clothes he stands up in - and with an hard winter approaching. It's only now that he realises just how much the terrain favours the critters who must now become his prey if he's to survive and not starve to death. The rabbits are no slouches, the fish no fools and the beavers - well they are actually quite brutal as they fell just about every tree they can find to fuel a construction that makes the Aswan dam look like the work of an amateur. Luckily, there is a trader (Doug Mancheski) with a beautiful daughter (Olivia Graves) who will supply all sorts of useful things in return for pelts, so with the help of an expert trapper (Wes Tank) and his carefully drawn map of the lares and snares, off he sets on a series of frequently laugh-out-loud escapades that almost brings the best of Warner Bros. cartoon artistry to life. The comedy is quickly paced slapstick and you can usually see the punchlines from space, but it does work amidst this snowy wilderness where our hero must eat or be eaten. His gradually honed skills see him use a bit of science, grim determination and loads of blind luck to gradually increase his visits to the trader, become better equipped and more loved-up. The title gives us a clue as to what price the man has put on his daughter, and so that's soon the concluding task for "Jean" but them toothy-beasts ain't just going to surrender - especially when we do find out what is going on in their industrial-scale complex on the water. It's much too long, though, and at times it's a bit like a board game where we just go round and round (gathering points) rehashing the same old scenarios and jokes, and I felt the last twenty minutes did drag a little - but for the most part it's part Chaplin, part Harold Lloyd with bits of "Grizzly Adams" thrown in too. It's entertaining and who knew you could do so much with a beaver's innards...?