Quick quiz: real-life murder mystery, or noodles; which will attract the biggest podcast audience? Ok, to save you turning this page upside down to find the answer at the bottom, I’ll review The Murder Podcast (writer/director William Bagley’s feature-length directorial debut) and all will become clear.

Chad (Andrew McDermott) and Eddie (Cooper Bucha) are longtime friends who unsurprisingly aren’t exactly top of the stack in the podcast world with ‘Ramen Reviews with Chad Thadwick’. Chad’s apparently eternal devotion to the flavoursome foodstuff possibly having added a hint of bias, their audience ranges in the low hundreds, which while they realise isn’t world-beating stuff, is still well worth partying on a Tuesday night for. Despite the protestations of Chad’s sister Martha (Logan Mariner) and boyfriend Stephen (Brian Emond) in whose basement Chad is overstaying his welcome, the pair’s desire for real fame is constantly at war with the fact that they’re a twinset of stoner booze monkeys for whom getting regularly trashed is equally appealing.

When a decapitated man is found (and in a town where there’s been no murders for over two decades is dubiously ruled as suicide), Chad convinces Eddie they should ditch the noodles and become a true-crime podcast; a sterling idea, with the only obstacle being Stacheburn, the Police Officer in charge of the case, who warns them not to interfere. However, when a second victim suffers the same fate, with a mysterious gold coin appearing to link the two, it’s game on; but this game’s only just getting started.

With all this as a springboard you’d of course expect some Dude, Where’s My Car?-style capers, and while most of the rapid-fire humour hits the mark, it has to be said that some of the laughs don’t land with quite the same satisfying thump. That said, Stacheburn’s scenes shine so brightly this barely matters. I’d not encountered actor Levi Burdick before, and though he wears the comedy cape more than comfortably, there’s an interesting character development between he and Chad which weaves in a thread of sentiment that’s both unexpected and touchingly profound. It left me wondering whether a more in-depth exploration into both characters could have taken the film down a different, if slightly less frathouse-like route that may have revealed more of Bagley’s potential than the lighthearted horror-comedy it largely settles on.

McDermott’s portrayal of Chad as an idle loafer playing grown-up is convincing indeed, so when he makes quiet but heartfelt references to his late father throughout the film the suggestion of the real reason behind his fierce longing for success is all the more emotive. For a first time feature-length indie, The Murder Podcast is a damn fine effort. In spite of its inward battle between emotion and commotion, it’s more than just passable and the production/special effects are first-class. Although at face value it’s uncomplicated chaos best watched intoxicated with a bunch of your mates and a stack of munchies, there’s a lot more to The Murder Podcast for the keen-eyed observer.

7 out of 10 Crazy & Mixed-up Kids