THE SQUASH

The Squash is a fun, compelling short film. Predictable to a certain extent, and a little raw, but also just a pleasant watch.

The premise is simple: a down-on-his-luck farmer (Verle McClellan), with a foreclosure on his property looming, plants the final crop he’s got (in dusty land that hardly looks arable), squash seeds. To his surprise, the seeds grow into squash almost immediately, and if that wasn’t nice enough, they also are filled with money. First, the squash has just enough to pay off the foreclosure debt, but as the days go by, the farmer starts indulging more of his materialistic whims. The dwindling squash crop seems to always be filled with just enough cash, but we all know where this is heading if the farmer doesn’t slow up on the spending. What do you think happens?

Played like an old style silent film, The Squash has a dirty, raw look to it that really works. It gives a whimsical tone, like the dark underbelly of a dream cloud. While the story of a poor individual finding the means to their dreams granted to them in a magical, seemingly innocuous fashion has been told in similar, though differing, variations before, this version focuses on that mindshift that turns a former producer into a compulsive consumer. Had this short been set in the time of the Home Shopping Network, the farmer REALLY would’ve been in trouble early on.

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