Hajimoto0625
Crush the Skull starts out looking like a typical hostage in the basement slasher flick, but quickly turns into a black comedy that had me alternately laughing and then covering my eyes over and over.The writing is excellent, with just the right amount of surprises, twists, and turns, and the acting is spot-on. None of that Indie flick crappy acting in this one. The cast really plays off one another and the banter is awesome. Katie Savoy was my favorite, because I am a red blooded American male, but all of the characters were great.Also, the cinematography was very good. All in all an excellent Indie black comedy that is definitely worth the time investment. Check it out!
Matthew Newtson
And I've seen A TON. Get through the first 3 minutes, and you'll be rewarded. A good amount of gore. Tim Chiou has some serious comedic timing. If you're into movies like You're Next, Club Dread, Basket Case or Death Proof, this flick is for you. If this movie would have had any kind of budget it all, it would have killed at the box office. Deserves a far higher score than what it's got right now. I don't know why I need 10 lines of text. 3 would have sufficed to get my point across. In fact, if you wouldn't require the 10 lines, you'd get a lot more motivated drunk reviews, much like the one I'm posting, at the moment. The shot before the end credits will make you squeal with delight.
James Wright
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.
Sergeant_Tibbs
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
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