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.

Awful comedy laced with the usual liberal nonsense. Buffoons need to finally learn that PCness and comedy never work, because PCness by definition is anti-comedy. Any ideology that seeks to crush truth can't lead to good humour by default, because comedy is based on mocking reality, and to mock it you need to first accept it. Liberalism is all about avoiding reality.

The attempt to merge comedy with genuine serial-killer scares completely misfires, partly because it's not doable, partly because the cast is annoying and boring, and because the script is lame, often cringey. Millennial humour reigns here.

This was a fun one. The dialog and chemistry among the four main characters was what drew me in. Sure, not all the jokes were winners, but the banter was charming and felt natural for the most part. Plus, the choices made by the Good Guys were often smarter than what you find in the average horror movie (regardless of its budget). They seemed to learn from their mistakes and make reasonable leaps of deduction without my "help" (a.k.a. yelling at the screen, "Why?! Why would you DO that??").

I was disappointed with the antagonist side of the coin, though. I get that there was a psychopath vibe being aimed at, but psychopath doesn't mean zombie. Showing no emotion and practically shuffling through every scene seemed more Heavily Sedated than Crazy Person to me.

What really surprised me were the production values. Even in the dark basement shots the lighting was well done and the audio was consistently good in both interior and exterior scenes. So often it seems like sound quality in particular gets thrown out the window when the budget is tiny. Kudos sound folks!

Overall, I'd say it's a comedy/horror film rather than a horror/comedy, but I was entertained. And, most of the time, that's exactly what I'm looking for.

I stumbled into this movie by accident; it was the one that I could see at that moment that seemed to have the most interesting title. I was very happy that I did.

The basic premise is that a group of robbers--some competent, some not so much--try to pull off a heist at a house in the middle of nowhere. Unbeknownst to them, the house is actually a torture chamber for a serial killer. Criminal is pitted against criminal, and craziness ensues.

Typically, horror/comedies end up being a bit scary with a few amusing moments, or mostly goofy with some cheesy horror-like moments. This movie jumps back and forth from having the audience laugh out loud to having legitimately tense parts. The ability to do both sides well made this movie very enjoyable for me. Granted, there were times where the jump between the two were almost too quick, making the emotional flow a little awkward. There were also a couple of forced jump-scares. But over all, a movie I would recommend seeing.

Did I get bored while watching Crush The Skull? No, not at all, and that's already a major positive point concidering it's a low budget horror movie. There is some humor present, not always hilarious, but I'll admit I laughed a couple of times. To me they could have just made a horror movie without humor with that story, that would have worked even better. The acting was okay, not the greatest though, but you don't pay to much attention to those details as the story is suspenseful. Crush The Skull has enough suspense to keep you entertained and interested till the end, and that's not always the case with movies like this.