While not totally a one-man show, 2023’s The Surveyors offers something of a one-family show. With Nigel Butler as writer, director and star, the movie also brings other Butlers into the fray – and comes to us via “Butler Media Productions”!

I admit this feels perilously close to a concept akin to a self-published book. Nonetheless, Surveyors comes with a story that sounds intriguing, so I’ll give it a shot.

Kyle Baxter (Nigel Butler) finds himself deep in debt. When he receives an offer to complete questionnaires for money, he agrees in the hopes this will help him dig out of his financial hole.

However, Kyle ends up in over his head. Those behind the surveys come with insidious agendas with threats that impact Kyle.

As implied at the start, Surveyors can feel like a vanity project. Nigel Butler dominates the film via the roles I mentioned along with producer, costumer and casting director, and his relative Stewart acts as editor, visual effects designer, 2nd unit director, sound designer, colorist and director of photography and co-producer.

This remains Nigel’s baby, as seems obvious due to the fact he appears on-screen nearly all of the film’s running time. The story completely revolves around Kyle and leaves little room for anything other than his story.

I won’t accuse Nigel of egotism here, though, as this approach makes sense given the movie’s presumably tiny budget. A more ambitious scope would make the film’s inexpensive roots less practical.

I also won’t complain because Nigel shows reasonable skill in his various roles. No, I can’t claim he makes a film that heralds a dynamic new talent, but he at least turns Surveyors into a competent and moderately compelling flick.

Which counts as a victory in and of itself. I admit that I went into Surveyors with low expectations due to that DIY vibe.

When I see one person – or two, if we include Stewart – responsible for so many aspects of a movie, it sets off warning alarms. Whether a vanity project or just a sign that no one else maintains faith in a project, the reliance on a couple people for so much of a production doesn’t inspire me with hope.

So that makes Surveyors a pleasant surprise, though I don’t want to oversell the film’s quality. Its low-budget roots become apparent much of the time via production values and some dodgy performances.

Nonetheless, these don’t really harm Surveyors, as it maintains a decent level of competence. It remains a professional affair that doesn’t come across as the glorified home movie it seems to be.

Given how much time he spends on-screen, it becomes important that Nigel delivers a solid performance, and he does… sort of. He doesn’t provide a particularly high-quality piece of acting, but he still grounds the movie well enough and seems acceptably convincing as our lead.

The film’s fairly tight narrative focus helps it as well. Outside of some odd philosophical digressions early in the tale, Surveyors sticks pretty closely to its thriller conceit as we follow Kyle’s descent into danger.

None of this makes Surveyors a great film, and it could use more polish. Still, it acts as a more than serviceable effort that makes me curious to see what Nigel Butler could do with a bigger budget.

The Surveyors appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though it betrayed its micro-budget roots, the image largely worked fine.

Sharpness usually satisfied. A few soft shots materialized – usually via interiors – but the majority of the movie boasted pretty positive delineation and accuracy.

I witnessed no signs of jagged edges or moiré effects, and the film lacked edge haloes. Source flaws also failed to occur.

In terms of palette, Surveyors went with a light sense of amber along with a bit of mild teal. The colors never excelled but they felt satisfactory.

Blacks were pretty dark, but shadows tended to seem a bit thick. Nonetheless, the visuals fared well enough for a “B” grade.

Another nod toward the movie’s inexpensive roots, the Blu-ray came with only a Dolby 2.0 soundtrack. No 5.1 and no lossless audio I meant automatically deducted points from my ratings, as both are basic requirements for circa 2023 movies/Blu-rays.

Even within the 2.0 framework, the soundscape of Surveyors felt uninspiring. Occasional examples of score brought decent stereo spread, but effects maintained a decidedly low-key presence.

Much of the time, the soundfield felt essentially monaural. Some scenes used the sides for minor ambience but the end result failed to broaden to these channels in an involving manner.

Audio quality seemed fine, at least, with speech that appeared fairly natural despite some awkward dubbing on occasion. Music showed nice range and clarity.

Though they lacked much to do, effects came across as reasonably accurate. Though I didn’t think this became a poor soundtrack, it just didn’t live up to modern standards.

Note that around the 24-minute mark, major audio synchronization manifested. These moments left a significant disconnect between what we saw and what we heard until these elements finally reconnected around 42 minutes.

I don’t know if this issue affects the movie in all forms or just impacts the Blu-ray. It does become a substantial distraction for the roughly 18 minutes it occurs, though – and a reason my audio grade got lowered to a “D+”.

No extras appear on the disc.

A micro budget thriller made largely by just two people, The Surveyors never excels. Nonetheless, it turns into a pretty watchable tale that works better than I expected given its roots. The Blu-ray offers generally positive picture but audio comes with some issues and the disc lacks bonus materials. No one should expect Hitchcock from Surveyors but the end product becomes a moderately involving tale.