Crawl [Blu-ray]

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

Good watching on a bad night.

Not great

Relies on a classic, Hitchcock-esque suspenseful Score to underpin a neat, sometimes plodding Storyline that revolves around the fateful encounter of 3 main Characters

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

Ok