Crawl

Bad night to be out on the road after dark. I liked this quirky little thriller, that, I suspect, comes from Australia. If I am to guess correctly, the guy who stars as the killer was the same chap who directed "Dead Calm." It is worth the time to watch, I found myself rooting for the young woman who was taken hostage, although I still don't know who the hit man was after. Heck, at some point in one's life, hasn't one fantasized about popping off the greedy auto mechanic? I write these reviews in practice for being a film critic someday. Post Script: The guy who directed "Dead Calm" was Phillip Noyce. The auteur for this film was Paul China. Good on you, Mate!

The story and acting are great. This is effective in that the female heroine that finds herself in an overmatched situation responds in a realistic fashion and does not suddenly become "Rambo",as is the case all too often these days. The movie is from 2012.The A/V is just fine.If you have a multi-region player , go for it. You will not be disappointed.

The trailer makes the movie more interesting than it actually is but I guess that is the point of the trailer? Not much happens for the fist half of the movie. The final climactic scene between the captive and captor is very short so not much suspense is built. In addition, the movie is lacking in explanation. It never explains who hires the cowboy or what the feud between Slim and the mechanic is all about. The police question Slim but are never seen in the movie again. Also, why didn't the girl go for the home phone as opposed to running for her cell phone? And who hired the cowboy?**SPOILER ALERT**The movie opens with an older cowboy shooting a mechanic in the fact then drops his gun and leaves. While driving the cowboy gets into a car accident with a young man on his way to his fiancé's house. Travis (the fiancé) is injured severely and the cowboy suffers only a leg injury. The cowboy notices lights on in a house not far away. The house is the child hood home of Travis' fiancé. The cowboy breaks in and ties her to a chair. Meanwhile, the police speak with a nightclub owner named Slim about the mechanic who was shot in the face. Apparently, Slim and the mechanic were fishing friends and had a falling out. The cowboy asks the girl the whereabouts of her car and she explains Travis has it. He asks her about a motorbike and she explains Travis has the keys. The cowboy then leaves to find Travis. Upon finding, him takes the keys along with an engagement ring and bashes Travis in the head repeatedly. Ahh but before the cowboy can make his escape he notices a car approaching and drags the body away into the woods and hides until the car passes. The driver is none other than Slim who looks around and also spots the house and makes his way to the house. Slim is looking for the cowboy and explaining to a man on the phone he has been set up. (The gun the cowboy used was taken from Slim's bar. Apparently, Slim realized this while drinking one night and looking at a piece of wood over a broken glass pane in the door of his office). When Slim goes into the house (he just so happens to know the girl), he explains Travis is dead and is asking where the cowboy is when the cowboy comes up behind him and axes him in the neck. The girl runs narrowly escaping a swing of the axe herself but manages to hide from the cowboy by sneaking out one window and back into the house only to find her hidden handgun. Then it shows her hiding in the bathroom with the door closed and the gun pointed at the door. The cowboy sees her feet under the bathroom door because she turns on the light but he just walks away. When the girl thinks it is safe she opens the door and ventures downstairs where the cowboy comes up and pops her in the face with the side of the axe causing the girl to fall to the floor and the gun slide from her hand and land a few feet away. The cowboy hobbles towards her wielding his axe and the girl crawls toward the gun. Just as the cowboy is about to swing the girl gets to the gun, turns around and shoots the cowboy. The cowboy drops the axe, falls against the wall, sliding down, and sits on the floor for a minute and the two are just looking at one another. Then the cowboy reaches for his cocaine (I am guessing it is cocaine since it is a white powder in a little baggie with twist tie). As he reaches for his drugs, the girl shoots again. Then the cowboy reaches for the engagement ring and tosses it to the girl and again the two are staring at each other...the end!

This movie was great. 5 Stars. It is very Alfred Hitchcock. The directing was great and the acting was great. As for the people giving it a bad review I don't know what movie they were watching. I have seen a lot of bad movies. A lot. This was not one. You want a bad movie try The Avengers : Endgame.

This movie left me a little dry; I wanted more of exactly what the directors and producers were trying (they almost made it) to achieve. It was visually well done, some good gore, but well done gore. Not too distasteful. The sound was troublesome, as I had to turn it up full blast to hear people talk, then rush to turn it wayyyy down during music, gunshots, etc. I really can't stand that. The acting was relatively good.In all, a pretty good horror romp, but could have been better.

The Croation killer played an eerie role, a man of few words, deliberate in his actions, and cold blooded. The problem I had with this movie was that in all too many scenes, while the music tried to set up suspense, the viewer could predict exactly what would happen. Suspense without a scare isn’t effective. In the first ‘suspense’ scene, with Marilyn in the house awaiting Travis, one knew nothing was going to happen. And she suffers from a ability to lock all the doors. The movie featured three versions of the ‘crawl’, so I give them some credit there. There were too many misses for the hits. I feel it was well crafted, interesting, but too predictable and the music really missed the mark. The music was really part of the problem. It signaled something was going to happen, but the poor script allowed the viewer to know if it was a real threat of simply a trick.

I was surprised this was as good as it was. It's a little slow in spots but has some good tension points. Poor Travis - it just wasn't his day. On the ending though I think she should have emptied the gun into him when she saw the ring and the realization hit her. I would have, haha.

Not a bad movie but the 'music' was very badly done.

For a first time, low budget feature this was actually pretty good. I was expecting a cheap and nasty b-movie horror , the kind of thing you find in bargain bins that are unwatchable, but while this is a little uneven, it shows great promise for the director. Like Blood Simple or Red Rock West, a stranger arrives in a small town and slowly things go wrong. There are creaky floorboards, sinister hitmen and a pretty young waitress who gets caught in the middle.China nicely builds the suspense in a Hitchcockian fashion but he does slightly over do it; everything is literally at a crawl in terms of pacing, and moments for sudden bursts of violence are few and far between. The motivations of the characters are also a bit muddy (why does the hitman set up the bar owner? Why does he go to the waitress's house?) but Georgina Haig is an appealing final girl and at under 90 minutes it doesn't outstay its welcome. A promising first effort then, but there's room for improvement.

When I hear films compared to masterpieces I prepare for disappointment but after a mixed set of reviews and a great price I thought - give it a go (Alan Jones of Frightfest liked it)A short film with limited dialogue it kept my interest all the way through - and very often on the edge of my seat.If you're looking for a Wolf Creek, Texas Chainsaw etc you'll be disappointed - if you want a well made indie thriller you should love it.Hope you give this a chance.

HORRORINTERESTINGA few unexpected shocks

Ok

Good film, quite interesting story line, keeps you gripped.