The screener I received of the Chris Skotchdopole directed and co-written comedy horror film (in his feature length directorial debut) - Crumb Catcher, stated the screener link was only viable for seven days, so after two weeks I figured it likely wouldn't work. Thankfully, it did, and I was exposed to this very dark and twisted comedy horror, with the empathises more on the horror side of things. While not nearly as bleak, the humour here reminded me of the type used in the shocking comedy horror of The Coffee Table.
Newly-wed Shane (Rigo Garay - The Leech) wakes up the day after his wedding to new wife, Leah (Ella Rae Peck - Blackout) with no memory much of the night before. He discovers their envelope containing guests monetary contributions to the new couple is empty, and he receives an odd text from a woman named Rose (Lorraine Farris - Natural Born Killers) who insinuates that he did something with her the previous night. Confused, but wanting to put it behind him, the newly weds head out to their honeymoon location, a remote and posh woodland home. Later that evening they are surprised to get a knock at the door, and even more surprised when they see that it is John (John Speredakos - Blackout), an odd caterer who had been working at their wedding. He states he had arrived there to give the couple the top of their wedding cake which had gone missing, but his true intentions are made clear when he says he wants to give the two a presentation on a novel device he has been working on, something he calls the 'crumb catcher'. It turns out that John's wife is Rose, and that they are blackmailing Shane to invest in this product unless Shane wants Rose to send the video she took of the pair being 'intimate' to his new wife. This begins an unsettling night of chaos and terror, as the eccentric John becomes increasingly deranged in his effort to sell his device.
This small in scope character drama mainly features a cast of just four. The larger than life John is the focal point of this, and Speredakos steals the show with his wild and chaotic performance. John is like a bull in a china shop, unable to take no for an answer, and reaching some Mr Bean heights of awkwardness and clumsiness. Think of a more horror styled version of Basil Fawlty from the British sitcom Fawlty Towers. With this character though there is an ever present feeling of danger. The man is huge as it is, but early on, Leah notices he is carrying a gun, which while never referenced by John, makes his weirdness more unsettling. Rose was more complicated, she seems at her wits end with John's desperate behaviour, but it always felt to me like this could all be an act. Her blazing arguments with her husband increase to the madness, creating even more of an odd feel to the evening. It made sense then that Leah and Shane are much more normal in how they act. Leah was fine, but I didn't really think much of Shane. He has no memory of the event with Rose, and due to the couple being obvious con-artists, I figured he would have likely been date raped, it was all too convenient. Shane instead, maybe due to confusion, is ready to believe that he willingly cheated on Leah. I enjoyed the flashes of a more dark side to John that are brought to the forefront, it made the uncomfortable night that little bit more perilous.
It may be a comedy horror, but there aren't many laughs to be found here. It is more a jet-black humour that propels the story, initially the comedic part being the new couple feeling too socially awkward not to interact with the manic John. Much of the film takes place within the remote house, though things change up into something more dramatic for the third act. There were some decent effects used to simulate being drunk, and the way the camera spins around the room during the 'Crumb Catcher' presentation really added to the feeling of confusion and being out of their depths for the protagonists. At one hour forty five, this went along at a fair pace, only really in the third act did things sometimes feel a little dragged out. Much like The Coffee Table, there is a feeling of social horror here, and this combined with the farcical nature of the story created an interesting blend.
I had no idea what Crumb Catcher would be when I started it up. Another film that isn't feel good, and whose humour was quite twisted. The strong central performance of Speredakos made this a movie that I couldn't look away from, even if the core idea was relatively simple. Crumb Catcher came to the ARROW streaming service on July 14th.
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