Crawl
Tags: suspenseful, murder

Plot synopsis:
Slim Walding (Paul Holmes), a pompous bar owner, hires a laconic, nameless Croatian (George Shevtsov) to kill an acquaintance over an unpaid debt. The crime is carried out, but the culprit intentionally leaves behind the murder weapon: an antique pistol belonging to Slim (thus framing him for the homicide). However, as the Croatian makes his getaway, he accidentally runs down a stranded motorist. Now burdened with a bloodied corpse and a wrecked vehicle, the murderer seeks refuge at a nearby, isolated house. There, he holds a young woman, Marilyn Burns (Georgina Haig), hostage.
The Croatian then learns that Marilyn's fiancee is the motorist he has killed. In order to make an escape on a motorcycle (the only vehicle at hand), he ventures back to the crash site to retrieve the man's keys. There, the Croatian murders the fiancee, after discovering he is in fact still alive. Later, Slim realises that his prized pistol has been stolen and that he has been set up. Upon learning the Croatian's whereabouts, he heads off looking for revenge. At the house, however, after freeing a gagged and bound Marilyn, Slim is killed when the Croatian unexpectedly attacks him with an axe.
Marilyn, terrified, attempts to escape the house and soon finds herself involved in a cat-and-mouse chase with the mysterious intruder. Eventually, a fight erupts between the two of them, and the Croatian is subsequently shot dead by the hostage he underestimated.

Review: I attended a screening of this impressive movie last night at FrightFest in Glasgow, also in attendance were the China Brothers.After reading some critic reviews of the movie where it was described as a "slow burner" etc I prepared myself for 60 minutes of tortuous nothingness followed by 30 minutes of manic catching up before ending in a bang.Crawl was not a slow burner.
Crawl is a brilliantly crafted work of suspense, tension and horror.
From the very beginnings, the China Brothers mould their characters in front of you, building them into solid centerpieces of their film - without giving too much away - the casting of the three main actors in this is perfect, and, given they only had a very limited script to work with, they deliver the tense and suspenseful scenes with powerful ease.Location, actors, storyline, delivery and end product are all perfect, and I look forward to Brothers' future work with great anticipation, as they lavish such care and attention on their work, that they deserve a far wider release with Crawl and future films.Don't miss this if it visits a cinema near you - you won't be disappointed..
As the other reviewer (only other one at this point of time), I did watch this at the Frightfest in Glasgow.
I really liked the suspense the movie created and the filmmakers really did a nice job of capturing intense on film!
While of course the movie could've been over sooner (if not for "movie logic"), this doesn't mean you have to dislike the movie for this suspension of disbelief.I sure hope you don't, because the movie would not be worth anything, if you start thinking like this.
And I know what I'm talking about, because I do have those moments myself sometimes with movies.
But this one was so fantastical, so otherworldly (great cinematography btw), that I didn't watch it as anything other than a tale or a fable (with horror mixed into it of course).While I also wouldn't exactly call it a slow burner, it isn't really fast paced either.
You've got to know that this will not rush through things and will take its time to go places.
I'm a fan of low budget horror films, from Brain dead to The Loved Ones, on to the Irish film Grabbers.
However, this has the feel of a director who thinks he's directing an art movie.
The acting was good, but that's the movies only saving grace.
If you read the online comments on various internet message boards, you'll see phrases like 'a thinking man's horror film' and 'highly atmospheric.' Then, when people - sadly, like me - who simply describe the film as 'boring,' we get criticised for 'only liking the lowest form of film' and 'not appreciating it.' It's about a seedy bar-owner who hires a mysterious hit-man to do away with an out-of-favour colleague.
However, things go wrong and the hit-man ends up stalking a hapless (and overly-perfect, in my opinion) barmaid who works at the bar.I'm afraid, for all the high-brow talk about Crawl, I just found it dull.
These scenes repeat at various intervals all the way through the film and you're just as well fast forwarding them and watching the speeded-up version (as you'll see what's happening at a fraction of the screen-time).I don't just watch Michael Bay films and movies filled with endless car chases.
I do watch other movies where I also have to (occasionally) use my head to figure things out.
However, I just couldn't help but get bored with this.Obviously, judging by the amount of positive praise there is out there for this film, then it has found an audience out there somewhere - I'm just one of those philistines who didn't appreciate it.
1 point is still way too much for this, I watched it because another review said it was great, it really isn't though, unless you have no brain whatsoever.it has a very poor acting & an even worse story, an ending you can see coming from a million miles away even if it's only 1 single shot.
cutting vegetables with eerie violin strokes can be a good thing but not when every living soul knows whats going to happen next.
For me the worst part is the lameness of the story: a guy comes home after a period a being far away to propose to his girl, but his car breaks down within visual distance of their house..
instead of walking the last 3 minutes (that's how long other characters in the movie need for it) he decides to wait for help by standing in the middle of the road & gets run over by some driver who wasn't paying attention.....
The only good thing about this movie is that the main character is a hot chick, but me being a single male i realize that isn't an objective opinion ;p.
One of the dullest so-called thrillers I've seen in a long time, CRAWL has aspirations to be the next classic Aussie movie.
The only good thing I can say about it is that director Paul China clearly knows his movies, but there's being inspired by and ripping off, and CRAWL falls into the latter category.
In various press releases, China and his brother are described as the new Coen Brothers, but CRAWL is more like a Coen Brothers rip-off.The opening scene is about the most memorable bit in it and even that rips off NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN like nobody's business.
After this point we're in BLOOD SIMPLE territory, with a slow-burning plot involving a small cast who come together on one fateful night.
There's no artistry here, no suspense or gripping moments, just a film that eventually becomes silly because it's so po-faced.It doesn't help that the script fails to breathe life into the various uninteresting characters, or that the cast members are singularly unmemorable.
But by far the worst thing about this is the director himself, who has no idea of how to make a thriller work.
I think even I, with zero training in film-making, could have done a better job..
A seedy bar owner hires a mysterious Croatian to commit murder, but a planned double-crossing backfires when a young waitress is taken hostage.
A suspenseful, yet darkly humorous chain of events builds to a bloodcurdling climax.The biggest problem with this film is that it has a silly title.
But it is not obvious to anyone who has not yet seen the film, so it might dissuade them from giving it a chance.There is action, blood and gore.
This Australian neo-noir crime thriller is the film debut by the China brothers.
It is all but impossible to avoid comparisons to "Blood Simple" (1984), the first film by the Coen brothers.
Both films take a simple story about grubby small-time criminals and turn it into an impressive showcase of cinematic style and fluid technique.
The sketchy plot concerns a seedy bar owner (well played by William Garvey) in a rural town who hires an enigmatic Croatian hit-man (George Shevtsov) to murder an old enemy.
Anyone who has ever seen a horror movie knows that searching for an intruder in an empty house is just asking for trouble.
The hit-man, in particular, does all sorts of strange things for no apparent reason.
Instead, the three principals are thrown together by a series of implausible coincidences.There is just one scene with a bit of character development, which also (sort of) explains the enigmatic title.
One of his waitresses owes him money (details are never explained, of course) and she works off $100 of her debt by submissively "giving him the crawl" on all fours then going over his lap for a hard hand spanking.Someday, this film may become a landmark, like "Blood Simple", not for what it delivers, but for what it promises.
The China brothers are clearly bursting with talent and ambition and will almost certainly create some stylish and memorable films in the future.
This one definitely had scary elements to it but by the end of the movie, I had this weird feeling of being mislead.
The whole movie has a very dark comedy feel to it, but it mostly leaves you feeling confused and a little bored.
It's still worth watching because there are some definite creepy situations but overall, nothing new that you probably haven't already seen.Please like me on Facebook!
"Crawl" refers to how time crawls in this movie.
very little intrigue,...action seems to get started but each time momentum dies off with long boring sequences.So "Crawl" refers to how time crawls in this movie.Do yourself a favor, keep your remote handy and your finger on the fast forward button,...one sure sign of whether a movie is good is if you would like to see it again - this is a definite no.Ram. The troubles a little drugs can get you in.
It builds suspense, but is neither a thriller, a horror, a splatter or a comedy, though it's got elements of all.
I found the film an enjoyable and entertaining watch, though no masterpiece.
Highly inspired by both Hitchcock and Coens, to which the film pays homages more than once.We right from the starts meet "the Croatian hit-man", which is a quiet guy of few words, as opposed to the rest of the Australians.
He does a job effectively, but from there it seems to go wrong.Well acted by all, with a bunch of odd characters in some underdeveloped roles, does keep the film from getting a large fanbase, I guess.The film is oddly slow between the action parts.
You think it will bring comedy, when it does not, and you are over and over surprised by what the persons in the film are deciding and doing.
I guess a lot of movie viewing is making us expect what to happen next.
Director Paul China is a British first time director and does have n interesting style.
Wanting to be the Coen Brothers is not that Blood Simple, you know.
The poster image for "Crawl" spawns a whole miscellany of glorifying words and an accumulation of prizes won at random international festivals, but – as secretly feared – the movie itself eventually turned out a terrible disappointment.
I don't know what kind of jury hands over these awards, but I bet they think of themselves as important and knowledgeable cinema experts.
I can name a whole lot of things wrong about "Crawl", but most important key errors would definitely be boredom and pretension.
"Crawl" isn't a so-called slow burner; it's a dead waste!
Some quotes claim that the China brothers (Paul and Benjamin) are as talented as the Coen brothers, but I feel they're just lame wannabe copycats.
The Chinas are probably even less talented than the Coen brothers' most distant cousins from their father's side of the family and "Crawl" can't hold a candle to their amazing debut "Blood Simple" and most certainly not against their widely acclaimed masterpiece "No Country for Old Men".
Even more annoying, however, is Paul China's complete lack of knowledge on how to build atmosphere and/or generate suspense.
You don't create tension just by stretching every scene five times longer than necessary.
Aborting sub plots all of a sudden does not make your movie artistic.
The more I think back about my "Crawl" viewing experience, the more frustrated I get.
It's just a downright inept movie with a retarded plot, and I will illustrate this through three simple bullet points: 1) the events take place in a remote and incredibly small town community.
And secondly, how does the bartender ever think he will get away with conspiracy to murder in a small community where every inhabitant knows about your quarrel with the victim?
2) Nobody, and I really do mean nobody, walks around his/her own house or work place at such slow pace as the people here.
3) If your car breaks down at approximately five minutes walking distance from your destination, you don't aimlessly hang around and throw yourself in front of another car hoping the driver will help!
Truly retarded movie; the only two stars go out to lead actresses Georgina Haig and Lauren Dillon for being so cute..
I'm a big fan of clever movies and sometimes feel the less action the better, but wow is this utter garbage.
Either that or the director thought drawing everything out five times longer than needed was a good substitute for suspense.
Other than the excruciatingly slow pace, and the multiple references to crawling that weren't clever at all the move suffered many other issues.
At the heart was a hit man who was older than my grandfather (easily 80 and looked about as threatening), an idiot fiancé, a overly creepy bar owner (I mean who would work there after the interview?), and a heroine that moved at a snails pace and stared every time there was the slightest noise.
The worse criticism I can give is that the movie was relatively short at just under 80 minutes, but still seemed 40 minutes too long.The acting was decent and the lead actress was very attractive, but the lack of character development made it pretty irrelevant who lived or died.
In short unless you really like slow, painful movies without any payoff skip this clunker..
This is not a horror movie.
This movie should have lasted for forty minutes but again and we get the same shot take over and over again.The plot is some twaddle about a Croatian dude trying to kidnap some woman.
Spoiler alert.The only funny bit in the whole movie regards a chocolate cake left outside a door.
Also it has a good sound track but in the end the movie just leaves you with the thought why did I bother.
An interesting but incomplete effort by first time director Paul China..
The Croatian comes to town and sanctions (kills for hire) the owner of a petrol station, Rusty Sapp.
He gets paid by the Slim Walding (who owns the bar where most of the other characters work) and leaves town.
He's looking for transportation, but Travis had the truck as well as the keys to the old motorcycle.The police come visit Slim Walding about the murder of Rusty Sapp.
Later, Slim and Holly play the spanking game to work off Holly's debt to Slim.
He makes her crawl to him before she gets over his knee, bares her bottom, then spanks her hard.The Croatian goes back and kills what's left of Travis, then steals the engagement ring from the corpse.
Slim finds his gun missing; he figures he's being set up.
He drives to Marilyn's house, finds Travis' blood, Travis' truck, but not Travis.
He sees the blood from the Croatian's wounded leg.
The Croatian comes in and disrupts their conversation.
-----Scores-------Cinematography: 10/10 Excellent.Sound: 8/10 The incidental music was often spot on, but sometimes overbearingly loud.Acting: 7/10 Just fine if one likes the acting style that the Coen brothers favour.Screenplay: 7/10 Just what was the plot against Slim?
How did the Croatian come into play here?
George Shevtsov plays a slow and methodical Croatian hitman.
Through circumstances he ends up broken down at Marilyn's (Georgina Haig) house.
She is an employee of Slim (Paul Holmes) who hired "the Croat" to perform the hit.
At this point we have the home break-in formula.The film utilizes a 1950's suspense thriller soundtrack.
***SPOILERS**** Totally bazaar movie about this creepy Croation hit-man, George Shevtsov,given a job by an sweaty looking Australian bar owner Slim Walding,Paul Holmes,to do in a scuzzy and greasy looking auto mechanic Rusty Sapp,Bob Newman, for welshing on a debt that he owned him.
With the job complete and and Rusty having his brains blown out the Croation leaves the murder weapon at the scene of the crime so the police can find it and frame Walding, whom the gun belonged to, for the murder!
There's just on problem in all this is that as the Croatian was making his getaway he hit and fatally injured biker Joe Travis,Andy Barclay, wrecking his car and leaving him out in the cold.The Croatian looking for a place to stay for the evening finds this house that waitress Marilyn Burns,Georgina Haig, was living in with her boyfriend who just happened to be Joe Travis the person that the Croatian ran down and left for dead.
Desperate to check out of the area before the police arrive the Croatian ties up Marilyn and at the same time goes back to the accident site and murders the brain dead Travis to cover his tracks and leave no witnesses to his crime.
There's also Slim after finding out that his gun is missing and the Croatian stole it to use to murder Rusty and as insurance frame him for it.
Slim after taking a brake in the action and having a game of "The Crawl" with his other waitress Holly,Lauren Dillon,whom he ends up spanking black & blue then goes to Marilyn place, thinking that his gun was there, only to end up getting axed to death by the Croation who was there waiting for him!****SPOILERS**** The films ends with Marilyn getting the upper hand on the Croatian who's too clumsy and uncoordinated, due to the injury he suffered in his car accident,to finish her off.
Off beat movie with long stretches of almost no talking at all as the Croatian bumbles his way through the house after Marilyn slipping and falling in his effort to get and kill her.
As for Marilyn she was lucky that the Croatian seemed to have taken a liking to her and let her escape when she was helplessly tied up and ended up doing the wild and crazy guy in.
That after the Croatian had so many chances to kill her and let just her slip away from him.