A Murder in Stirling Town is a firm good laugh had by a couple pals, held together by comedic dialogue and witty banter. Inbetween all the moustaches and puppets is a story of sherlockian investigation in a city we all know and love.
A Murder in Stirling Town embraces comedy over seriousness by keeping the scenes short and snappy, packing them to the brim with comedy that’s bound to make you crack a smile.
Tom Broekhuizen sat down with Brig to discuss his style of film making and the joy of embracing comedy over seriousness.
The film centres on a detective (played by Tom) as he attempts to uncover a murder commited in the centre of Stirling. He must investigate a couple of suspects to narrow down his search and eventually find the man responsible for the murder.
Plot wise the film may sound serious- but Tom doesn’t make serious films. Instead, he likes to embrace the comedy of life and keep things light hearted.
“I don’t like making an overly serious film… It’s not necessarily going for awards but I guess I wanted it to feel more like a mental break.”
Image Credit: Tom Broekhuizen
The silly tone of A Murder in Stilring Town is established immediately with the murder of a puppet. This puppet isn’t actually a puppet- it acts as a stand in for an actual human body. Tom wanted to avoid the film becoming potentially dark by showing a dead human, so instead he opted for the next best option: a puppet he picked up at a corner shop.
“If I dressed up a real human as a dead body that makes the film a bit more morbid than I wanted it to be. So, I used a puppet and had it be completely ignored [by the characters].”
It’s undoubtedly silly, but that’s not a bad thing as Tom was seeking that goofy tone from the get go. A large part of Tom’s style comes from his laid back filming style, as instead of giving strict directions to his actors, he lets them come up with their own lines and accents.
“Obviously the guys can interpret their characters from reading the script… that gives them a lot of freedom to explore the characters and really make it their own”
Image Credit: Tom Broekhuizen
“I have an idea when I’m writing this script of the character. For example, Josh is playing his detective character. He had a really different idea and we ran with it for a bit and I was like ‘You know what? This works a lot better than my idea so let’s just do it.’”
Tom went on to discuss how over the last year his focus on comedy hasn’t wavered, but his style has taken a big turn this year, espepcially compared to his 2024 ATVA film that was heavily inspired by other filmmakers.
In embracing himself as a filmmaker, Tom has allowed his style to grow into something new and unique to him.
“Obviously last year I was on a bit of a Wes Anderson kick, so it was very styizlised. I liked running with it and it worked but it limited me… With this one [A Murder in Stirling Town], I took it on a scene-by-scene basis.”
Tom then went on to discuss how, as the soon to be Station Manager of AirTV, he wants to make it clear to members of the society that they don’t have to do serious films and that letting things be silly sometimes can yield great results.
“I guess I wanted to show people that you don’t have to take it too seriously, just have a bit of fun. I hope that me becoming president and making this film which is just fun shows that we’re not going to be too stringent.”
A Murder in Stirling Town is a stupidly good time that avoids seriousness by keeping the audience consistently entertained throughout its entire run time.
Stay tuned to Brig as we cover other ATVA 2025 entries.
Featured Image Credit: Tom Broekhuizen
Fourth year Film and Journalism student
Deputy editor
Contact - deputyeditor@brignews.com
