Craving

I thought this was going to be a werewolf movie, but it's a bit of something else. For low budget fans, the premise feels familiar but the execution is head and shoulders above most crowdfunded movies.

A group of people spend an evening in a local bar, which i soon invaded by another group of people who seem to have bad intentions. Yet there is another group of people on their trail, giving a dire warning that someone in the bar will turn into a monster and no one will be leaving unless that person is surrendered to them.

The premise makes for some fun tension as we move slowly toward the inevitable - a monster. Most of the gore in this movie really works and the cast is solid. Everyone puts forth a grand effort and makes for a very entertaining watch.

I will preface this brief review with a couple of facts. One, I LOVE horror films, especially creature features, and let's face it...there just are not enough good creature features made anymore. Two, I truly enjoy independent film and cinema. While budgets always place constraints on projects, a good script and good team can produce an excellent, enjoyable film without the help of Hollywood or a large purse.

Now about "Craving":

• the acting is terrible. It's one thing to have "wooden actors..." you know...the ones that are a bit stiff, but the folks in this movie (the ENTIRE cast) are amateurs at best. Stagnate, posed, lifeless lines & deliveries...timed and contrived screams...unconvincing in every way.

• the script is actually not the worst I've followed. In actuality, had this been a big budget movie (eg better actors, better sets, better FX, bigger budget), I might have enjoyed it. But the acting was so terrible that even had the script been adapted from a Pulitzer Prize winning book, it wouldn't have mattered.

• the special fx were not good. I can often overlook this, as we all know that fx are among the most costly part of a film, but these were pretty cheesy. Most kills are offscreen, followed up with immediate pan to whatever pile of substance they're using for blood. It should be noted that film makers did indeed TRY to make it gory (toward the end) but like most other aspects of this movie, this fell flat.

-very slow. Very very slow. Very very very slow. Tediously slow...I mean like fall-asleep-in-the-middle-of-the-movie. The first nearly 2/3 of the movie is nothing but listening to unemotional dialog .

Really wanted to like this, as it gets harder and harder to find good horro films. Sadly this is not one of them, even though all the reviews rave about it - seems like these folks maybe got screener passes. I would not recommend a single aspect of this movie.

>>> minimal gore >>> some fun violence and guns >>> no nudity >>> some profanity. But not heavy.

Been following Horton's filmmaking channel and groups online for some time so naturally when he announced this movie just came out on Tubi, I quickly moved it to the front of my queue. (I secretly would've like to have driven a couple hours to be at the Los Angeles premiere but it was on a weeknight)

The movie was about what I expected, though the trailer hints it's not perfect, I did want to like it more than I did. As with most indie films, you get some good stuff and other parts not so much.

What I liked the most out of this movie was the campaign to push it, with excellent marketing materials and artwork. The film itself used de-aging technology for flashbacks that really helped a lot with the continuity of the characters; you didn't have to guess who was who. But if anything they were aged too much in the present since the flash backs are around 15 years ago and they look significantly younger (less than half their age).

I'm not a huge fan on gore, but I do appreciate it when it has purpose. There's a little too much here for my taste, but I'm not a gorehound. Low budget horror lovers certainly get a pay off at the end of the movie, so stick around.

As for what didn't quite work for me, I noticed in the trailer the performances just did not seem all that convincing for the situation. It's another thing I expect from indie films, but every now and then you get a goody cast and this was not that. With so many cast members, several had some okay parts, but were mostly disconnected. The only standout to me was Bryant with Morman a very close second. I liked Caliber's vocal tone and Bourke's delivery most of the time.

The score was pretty decent, as was the mix but the sound design really needed some work. Gunshots sounded too generic and it was like they were only drag and dropped in the edit. It really took me out of the film and I really wanted those parts to have more of an impact.

Unlike so many indies, I understand this is a film meant to make money. Rose being part of the cast is a no brainer for that. The script was okay though some of the best dialogue was in Gail's flashback. The Frenzy character was not likable at all and they almost had too much screen time, though it seemed like her part was intentionally done this way. I think if more of the cast had better performances and the sound design got the same treatment the practical effects did, the other minor issues are much easier to overlook.

Looking forward to seeing improvements in this team's next project!

I venture to say that horror movies perhaps have the most enthusiastic following of all genres of film. CRAVING is a slow starter that gains momentum as it rushes toward the finale . The prime setting is a rural bar inhabited with regulars, doing what they usually do. They are interrupted and threatened by a group of dangerous people who seem to be in great danger themselves and who have been followed by another group just as intense. All very mysterious and confusing until the pieces begin to come together through a series of flashbacks. Extreme close-ups enhance the unfolding action. When the gore finally comes, it is hot and heavy making excellent use of special effects. Michael Turner Tucker, as Carl, has a strong presence and comes across as highly believable in these unusual circumstances.. This film will most likely appeal to the heavy duty horror fan.

I'm a big fan of low-budget gorefest 'Feast' which is about a bar full of people who are under siege from some monsters. Nope, it certainly won't win any Oscars and was definitely not written by Shakespeare, but it was damn good fun. And, if that's what you're looking for at the time, 'Feast' would fit the bill.

Here, in 'Craving,' there's a similar set-up - a group of strangers are barricaded up in a bar and there's a creature going to wreck havoc. Okay, there are bits that are different. Here, the bar is under siege from a group of people who say that there's actually a monster inside and they're there to kill it (or everyone inside in the process!).

One of the major differences is that there are a lot of 'explanation' flashbacks which tell you the backstory for various characters. It does add more 'story' to 'Craving,' but the downside is that it does feel a bit like 'filler' and it tends to slow the movie down a bit.

But the performances are good and there are people here who are slightly different to the average cast of monster films, i.e. Teenagers (played by twenty-somethings) who just run around screaming, so that's something, plus the special effects deserve a mention. There's a lot of gore and the film-makers really lean into the 'splatter' in general, giving the film a bit of an 'over-the-top' feel.

There's definitely good points in this movie and it's worth a watch if you can find it on a streaming platform for part of your package, but it does get a bit confusing sometimes with all the 'reasons' why people are doing what they're doing and who they're double-crossing. It may have just been better leaving it to be just a bar under siege from a monster.