Review by Tristan Bishop
“Don’t believe the hype” suggested Public Enemy, way back in the mists of time, at the dawn of recorded culture (the late eighties). It was a warning that subsequent generations of humanity could do with heeding, and it seems particularly relevant at the moment, with several releases from the last six months being hyped to the heavens and then being released to extremely mixed responses – I needn’t single out any films here, those of us with an interest in horror films will know them all too well. Hype can drum up interest and get bums on seats, but it can also negatively impact perception of a film – calling something (I’m pulling this out of thin air so apologies if it mirrors the tagline of something) ‘the most shocking and original horror film of our generation’ is only going to make the audience question whether it is on viewing.
But we can’t help it – it’s human to fall for hype, especially when it appeals to our tastes. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen something expecting to be blown away and then been bitterly disappointed, and I’ve also witnessed films with much to enjoy about them that have been negatively affected by over-hyping.
Crawl, is unfortunately, a film which falls into the former category. I was enticed by the sound bites I had seen (including a great write-up by someone whom I admire), and many references comparing it to Blood Simple by The Coen Brothers, which is a GREAT film full stop. But I am getting ahead of myself.
The setting is a rural town in Australia. The scene is set when a mysterious Croatian appears and shoots a garage owner in the forehead. It transpires that the Croatian is a hitman hired by a local bar owner/drug dealer to off the garage owner over a bad debt. However, as he is leaving town the Croatian crashes his car and ends up at the house of one of the waitresses from the bar, who is expecting her boyfriend to come home and propose at any moment.
That’s actually it for plot. I have seen reference to the film’s ‘suspenseful chain of events’, but, well, not so much. Admittedly there is a nice moment tied into a break-in at the bar, but if you are making a modern film noir then you might need a few more twists and reveals. This might actually be forgiveable if the film was filled with interesting characters, but aside from one (or maybe two if you include the sleazy bar owner, who is quite fun), the characters are bland and unexplored. The ‘heroine’ of the piece is particularly lifeless, but I think blame here lies in the scripting rather than performance of Georgina Haig (whose character is called ‘Marilyn Burns’, for all you Texas Chainsaw fans).
But before I slam the film too much, there are some positives here – the cinematography is very attractive, for instance, so kudos to Aussie veteran Brian J Breheny (Priscilla: Queen Of The Desert) there. But the single most impressive thing about Crawl is the performance of George Shevtsov as The Croatian – scanning George’s IMDb credits reveals a man who has done a fair amount of work in short films and TV over the last 40 years, but whose most high-profile role was probably The Doctor in the excellent Nicole Kidman thriller Dead Calm back in 1989. Here, he embodies the role of the Croatian (billed as ‘the Stranger’) like a dream, his calm but expressive, almost kindly face (and it is a PERFECT cinema face) matched by his stone-cold killer demeanour and very deliberate movements. It’s a stand-out, powerhouse performance which is unfortunately deserving of a much better film.
You may be thinking now ‘OK, that sounds quite good – one excellent performance but a slight plot, this could be watchable’. But the problem is further compounded by two things – a script which hinges on a couple of unbelievable contrivances (no spoilers though!) and first time director Paul China’s bizarre idea of how to build tension – he regularly stops the action for up to five minutes at a time for the characters to, well, not do very much at all – like, reach veeerrrrryyy sloooowly for a doorknob. This has quite the opposite effect of what was presumably intended (unless what was intended was a tribute to the ‘anti-films’ of Andy Warhol, which I doubt), and ended up dissipating any interest in the events on screen. This is an unfortunate directorial choice which ultimately ends up turning what could have been a minor but fun film into a dull and irritating experience – the film lasts all of 80 minutes, but these pauses conspire to make it seem a lot longer. In fact, without these periods of inaction the film would barely last an hour. And the title? Well, it’s clever, see, because all the main characters end up, err, crawling at some point or another.
Which brings me back to the hype again, as I have seen the film described in many places as ‘tense and slow-burning’ – an effect obviously desired by the film makers, but which resulted in a film which draws attention to its own flaws – most unforgivably that of being far less clever and cool than it thinks it is – and one which could probably be improved by a long, slow burning.
Crawl is released to UK cinemas, DVD and Blu-Ray on 25th February, from Arrow Films.