birgit_schuette I absolutely loved this. The hangover meets black comedy - love the deadpan esp when the Aussie shows up. Carry on. Joy if you love comedy horror

Prismark10 The presence of Reece Shearsmith who plays bitter accountant Wendy rather gives you the nod that this will be a black comedy which soon turns into a macabre survival comedy thriller.Jim Howick plays every-man Ian, a nice geography teacher who is ill at ease at a highland stag do full of posh, rich loutish bankers who either despise him or ignore him.Ian quickly gathers he does not belong and should not had come but he is the bride's brother. As they go hunting it turns out that they are the prey as one by one they meet gruesome deaths.As the grisly death toll mounts it is apparent that some of the friends in the group only have paper thin friendships and sordid secrets. Something from their past has returned to haunt them. Ian just seems to be an innocent bystander in the crossfire.The inspiration for Stag are comedies like Hot Fuzz, some of the characters are very dislikable, the humour, the violence and the thriller element are not always well balanced. Once you get into it, the television series was rather enjoyable and Shearsmith who also co-writes for 'Inside No 9' will approve of the twist ending.

Paul Evans The first point I'd make is how on earth do you classify Stag in terms of genre, as it crosses over into so many, it's that originality that perhaps made Stag such a winner. Before it started I had a pre conceived idea that it be similar to the Martin Clunes film with the same name, wrong! Stag is And then there were none, meets league of Gentlemen, meets Hot Fuzz. The humour is dark and subtle, the suspense is actually really well done and edgy. It's full of twists, constantly surprising, and the outcome will definitely have you guessing right through to the very end. Brilliantly acted by the entire cast, Rufus Jones and JJ Feild I thought were both particularly good. I found this on DVD, I had no idea this had been on, I later learned it was broadcast on Saturday nights, maybe that accounts for it having slipped past.9/10 A winner.

Tweekums When Ian arrives in the highlands for Johnners', his soon-to-be brother in law's, stag do and finds nobody there to meet him he should have got the idea that he was going to have a terrible weekend… he couldn't have guessed how bad though. He manages to get a taxi to where the others are and finds them to be a bunch of obnoxious city wide boys who quickly start picking on him. They have hired a local gamekeeper to take them stag hunting but due to the weather he advises them against it; they are determined though and he drives them into the woods… then abandons then. The group is understandably annoyed but this turns to terror when one of their number is harpooned and dragged into the trees! As the weekend progresses their numbers are whittled down in a variety of ways. They are convinced that the gamekeeper is hunting them but could it be somebody else; or even somebody within the group?This was advertised as a comedy but if you are expecting lots of jokes or wackiness you are in for a shock; the humour is as black as pitch and there is genuine tension once the mystery killer starts killing off the members of the group. Apart from Ian the characters are fairly unsympathetic at first but over the course of the series we get to know them better and learn that some of them aren't as bad as we thought… just before they die. The remote highland location and the oppressive weather combine to create a great atmosphere where the tension is rarely broken… and when it is that often means something bad is about to happen. The identity of the killer can't be guessed but the person they are working with is mildly surprising… only mildly because by the time it is revealed there aren't many people left. The cast, which includes several familiar faces, does a fine job making us believe in the situation but just because a character is played by somebody is played by somebody familiar doesn't mean they will last very long. There are of course some clichés and silly moments but not enough to spoil this viewer's enjoyment. Overall I found this to be tenser than I expected and well worth watching.