Crawlspace Review
By: MattInRC
The low-budget Crawlspace doesn't look like it, delivering a decent horror flick experience.
At SJF, we've reviewed plenty of low-budget horror tripe. On the surface, Crawlspace appeared to be yet another of these throw-away flicks; we're inclined to let it sit a moment longer than the others we've merely tossed into the abyss.
When a top-secret medical lab in Australia comes under attack from an unknown force, an elite squad of soldiers is tasked with rescuing the science team. What the soldiers do not know is that problem at Pine Gap is not some alien creature but a human experiment gone wrong in the form of Eve (Amber Clayton). Having endured a tricky surgery by merging an alien brain with her own, Eve has developed enormous mental powers beyond her own simple telekinesis. Eve awakens frightened and unable to remember who she is, but possessing the charming scars of her recent experience. The strike team sent to deal with the situation has no idea what they're getting into; led by Romeo (Ditch Davey) and ordered to eliminate any escaped prisoners, Eve begins to use her powers to control Romeo, leading him to believe that she is his dead girlfriend. At first, Romeo refuses to kill Eve, choosing instead to drag her back while his team is destroyed by their own worst fears, courtesy of Eve. The couple soon meet Caesar (Nicholas Bell), the leader of science team, who suggests Romeo treat Eve as a hostile. Faced with a looming deadline of nuclear annihilation Romeo must decide whether to save Eve, or follow Caesar's stern warning.
Fusing several classic sci-fi/horror flicks into an 80-minute trip, Director Justin Dix throws in everything from medical experiments ala Scanners to blazing gun battles that remind one of Aliens. Granted, nothing here is done quite so well as those classics, but Crawlspace does a fair job of entertaining. It's creative, merging military tactics alien tech, and mental manipulation while Dix amps up the human/horror tension along the way. By the end, we're a little disoriented from all the plot twists - I assume this was Dix's plan from the start, but the effect is not as confusing as it could have been. Dix has a fair grasp on the human psyche, and this knowledge pays off in a film that probably deserved a longer runtime than it received. Had Crawlspace been given such levity we might have witnessed a true surprise hit; instead, we're left with a diamond in the rough, waiting for a real studio to pay it proper attention.
If your Blockbuster or Netflix queue is back-ordered and you need a momentary alien/gunfight distraction in tight spaces (hence the title), Crawlspace might fit the bill. It's rated R for violence and language and has a runtime of 80 minutes.
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