Crush the Skull

Almost turned this off several times in the opening 15 or so minutes. Something told me to carry on.

Glad I did. While the negatives up front stacked up, they, like the Jenga game, quickly fell down and the positives began to multiply.

Beginning with Asian actors not only taking major roles, race, aside from a quick non-Asian, albeit racial joke, never was an issue. That was refreshing and progressive. Way to go, guys, not even bringing their heritage up and it was normal. Bravo. Second, such the strong female lead. For such an amateurish film, she 100% acted like a major Hollywood actress.

I digress, let me back up. The movie is about "on-paper" good thieves who upon their last score inadvertently make that their second-to-last and their real last isn't a blast. They encounter a killer with a torture basement and no way out.

The movie is mostly a comedy, though many ideas stem from many horror movies these filmmakers obviously admired. Unfortunately, for the film, the first third or so - when I wanted badly to call this a loss and find another Friday Night Fright, the "comedy" wasn't funny and the direction/camera work/flaws were so film-school reject, it's hard to believe the last two-thirds made up for it in spades.

The jokes got funnier (I found myself actually laughing out loud a few times) and the acting improved as did the cinematography. In that first act, I admired these unknowns were making a movie - that's not an easy task even when most of the stars align, but I felt pity as barely any of jokes landed. Once the first third was over, I forgot this was all-but friends getting together to attempt to make a film and was actually watching a horror-comedy-homage.

Plus, it was a huge plus this wasn't found footage as it hinted at in the beginning. Bravo, again, for not taking the easy and definitely stupid way out for making a real movie.

Overall, while not 100% there and it still felt amateurish at times, once they got their grove and you can spot the dozens of references to subgenre horror movies, you'll probably enjoy this. And yes, references. I believe these people loved the many movies this jammed in and it wasn't about thief or unoriginality.

This is an A for effort. I checked out your IMDb pages. Keep this up and grow more so we can see you get the box-office and praise you deserve.

***

Final thoughts: Horribly, though, I coincidentally watched this as real-life torture and abuse from two "parents" upon their multiple children came out this week. Two Californian "parents," absolutely destroyed their many children with actual torture for their whole lives. Mercifully, one of the kids escaped to get help and hopefully, those "parents" will live long enough to know the evils they did.

So, that all said, despite this movie being made LONG before this incident came to light, it was still kinda hard to watch torture rooms and devices immediately after a true story about the same kinds of malice.

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.

+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.

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

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.