Crush the Skull

CtS was a low-budget horror film I backed on Kickstarter some time ago. As is often the case, it takes many months before you get to see the finished product (if ever…there are still projects I backed in early 2014 that haven't delivered). I can't remember exactly what made me choose this film as one to support. I think it was a combination of the plot and the prominence of humor in the film. Actually the film's budget was rather large for Kickstarter standards, about $75,000 (I've backed films with budgets below $1,000 if you can believe that).

The film is the brainchild of Viet Nguyen and Chris Dinh. Chris also stars in the film, while Viet served as Director. The plot is somewhat simple: Ollie (Dinh) and Blair (Katie Savoy) are a loving couple who happens to make their living by breaking and entering into upper- class homes. When what is supposed to be their final job before a year of traveling goes comically wrong, they are forced to go into debt to a local gangster and resume "work" to afford their payments. Because time is of the essence, they agree to join Blair's screw-up brother (Chris Reidell) and his "crew" (the hilarious Tim Chou) in a robbery of a vacation home. Unfortunately, the target property is the lair of a serial killer…and once they break in, they cannot find a way out.

Tight dialogue, great humor and good acting are what pull this film together. There are some suspenseful moments, but things never get too serious, and unlike most low-budget horror films the blood is kept to a minimum. Crush the Skull is one of those movies you need to pay attention to as you watch it or you'll miss some of the ongoing gags and subtle humor. You'll still enjoy the more obvious jokes and fun, but the effort you put into the details will be well worth your while.

The characters are well developed and their personalities dictate their actions and the kind of laughter they inspire. The "basement" sets are very well done, and above all the post-production work on sound and music lift Crush the Skull to an even higher level. Those two areas are often shortchanged in the low-budget world, but this team marshaled their resources well and the finished product is much better for those efforts.

I don't think Crush the Skull is available on DVD or on-demand yet, but I believe it will be shortly. Watch for it, especially if you enjoy dark, intelligent humor mixed with your suspense and horror.

This is a smart, well written comedy thriller with horror elements that emphasises the comedy over anything else. If you are expecting a tense splatter-fest then you might be disappointed as the main source of humour comes from the incredulity of the comedy placed in a serious situation, which works, but kills any tension that has been built.

The effects aren't amazing but are made up for by good character development, the mains actually being likable, which is rare. There are some pacing issues, you get to know the characters and the situation and then you blink and the movie is nearly over, but it is still overall an entertaining and fun ride.

This is a nice effort and could have benefited from a little more expansion but works for what it is. There are more laughs than scares but as long as you know that going in then you should have a good time with this one.

Director Viet Nyugen is clearly fascinated with the idea of criminals stumbling onto danger far worse than their own misdeeds. It's a trick Crush the Skull pulls twice in its first and second acts. No doubt it's a theme of Nyugen's two webshorts, 2010's Crush the Skull and 2013's Crush the Skull 2, which feature some of the same cast. But no matter how many times he does it, I'm not sold. Winner of the Nightfall award at the Los Angeles Film Festival, the film version of his wicked concept is a weird hybrid of webisode and TV sitcom. I don't know why this made it to the silver screen. It revels in its punchlines as jokes are punctuated with a Parks and Recreation style zoom. This wouldn't be too bad if the jokes were funny, but they're all obvious ones that would only work in absurd satire but this isn't whacky or sharp enough. Instead it uses all the clichés of horror without subverting them, thinking its melodrama is hilarious but it's just melodramatic. Unfortunately it's completely atmosphereless. There are a few unexpected moments I enjoyed, and it's not explicitly bad, it just falls flat.

5/10

The acting started out fake and the camera methods were not to my liking at first, but it actually turned out to help the movie in creating the tense atmosphere and the acting worked as well. Some jokes were not exactly laugh out loud funny but the majority actually were... while still blending with the fairly decent plot.

Overall it's more comedy than thriller, but still manages to make you jump in your seat at least once or twice and keep wondering what will happen next. It wasn't perfect but it's the only horror comedy that wasn't ridiculous and all about gore, and was actually to my liking in providing a thriller with a good story line, and with sensible jokes in between.

+1 Star for opening Sequence, The hook got my attention!!!!

+1 Star for a Great Line!!!

-1 Star For Dumb Sheriff Deputy... not calling for backup immediately when the situation required it and not following other common protocols

-1 Star For Sappy Scenes near the End and the Goodbye 'Crew' Speech

+1 Star for the laugh at the end!!!

Okay this is no big winner by any stretch, but it wasn't bad. Entertaining and worth a watch if you are a horror fan that really doesn't mind the genre being made fun of a little.