The Dog Muck Shrike Screenplay Poster

A fabricated artefact from The Dog Muck Shrike archive.

This poster design was part of a pitch for a screenplay based on the Dog Muck Shrike disturbances.

Writer Anna Effs-Horthy and director Dory Harbin approached various production companies for funding, but suffered rejection after rejection. They were told that the theme was puerile and esoteric.

Their pilot sequence depicts a disturbingly erotic picnic scene, where shots of two lovers kissing are juxtaposed against aggressively cut macro clips of swarming flies, excretal discharges, panting dog tongues and food sweating in the sun. Interspersed among these fragments we see the uncanny image of the shrike’s eye (rumoured to be footage of a tame jackdaw). The shrike is presented as voyeur and the audience is led to believe that it has a penchant for human lust. These connotations are brutally severed by the subsequent shot, which displays an aftermath of litter, food waste, faeces and blood-drenched gingham. Upon this disgusting garnish lie the corpses of two weimaraners. As the camera pans up we see a contorted upland oak, bejewelled with skewered dog turds and dangling black bags. At this point we hear jarring squawks, but the appearance of the bird is deliberately omitted.

A damaged, low-quality version of the scene was available on YouTube for a while, but it got reported and taken down. As for the original cut, it’s said that the master film reel is buried beneath the pylons that line the A38.

Philip Trenerry

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