Craving

Full disclosure, I worked on this film. This is my honest review: Craving is an indie horror flick about a group of people trapped in a rural bar. Half are the regulars: bartenders and patrons, the other half are a "family" of junkies who've been followed by a group of hunters in flesh masks. The hunters barricade everyone inside, dead set on killing one of them who they claim is a monster. Not just in practice, like a literal monster. Directed by J. Horton and written by Horton and Gregory Blair, Craving is a slow burn unraveling of a deeper, sad story of family and love. Horton does a great job at capturing the characters emotions and relationships with each other despite the size of the cast.

The main story focuses on telling the history of the "family", five junkies who were gathered by Carl (Michael Turner Tucker), a mysterious father figure who is in charge of scoring heroin for the addicts. Gail (Holly Rockwell) and her adoptive son Will (Xavier Roe) bring the most emotionally charged performances, while Frenzy (Ashley Undercuffler) acts as a foil to just about everyone, delivering a chaotic yet playful performance that keeps you on your toes. Mac (Kevin Caliber) and Lo (Likun Jing) deliver more nuanced performances as the less talkative yet more threatening members of the group, and once they jump to action you know something Brad's about to go down.

Filling out the bar cast are sweet bartender Shiloh (Rachel Amanda Bryant), lovestruck conspiracy theorist Rudy (Frankie Guzman), con artist and manipulator CeCe (Toya Morman), dorky cowboy Travis (Gregory Blair), local DJ with RBF Rylee (Miranda Bourke), and shady businessman Jared (Scott Alan Ward). We are also treated to a small performance from horror mainstay Felissa Rose as Les the bartender, who brings warmth and humor to the group before things go awry. While we go get to enjoy these characters, they become more akin to cannon fodder once the family becomes introduced in the story. We get just enough to know who they are and understand them, but by the end you'd be forgiven for not remembering all their details brought up early on.

The cast is rounded out with Hunter (Al Gomez) who works alongside the hunter group consisting of Red (Greg Tally), Lori (Zera Lynd), and Gerry (Robert C. Pullman). Hunter has been pursing the monster for decades, and Gomez delivers a great performance throughout multiple moments in time showing his obsession and resilience, and just how he's turned into a monster himself in his pursuit

It's worth mentioning here that we get to see different sides to several characters throughout the flashbacks. And while it's cool to put the pieces together with this method it does slow the pace of the film during the second act. This is a low-budget film, so you have to consider that when judging it against multi-million dollar horror films. But if you enjoy cult horror or B-films this will be right up your alley. With impressive monster and gore effects from Robert Bravo, the film delivers an impactful third act when the monster itself is revealed. That may be a complaint for those expecting a monster movie, that it isn't really one until the end, but the way it pays off will likely win you ever in the end.

The monster itself is something unlike anything I've seen before. It's violent and terrifying, but you feel sad for it at the same time. One of the greatest strengths of the film is that just about every character is in love or has familial love to someone else in the film, causing the relationships between everyone to heighten the emotions through the worst violence. This highlighted by Everett Young's score and Sophia Cacciola's cinematography. So if you're a fan on low budget horror this will deliver the goods, even if there's a bit of delayed gratification. I would love to see a sequel to this.

Been following Horton's filmmaking channel and groups online for some time so naturally when he announced this movie just came out on Tubi, I quickly moved it to the front of my queue. (I secretly would've like to have driven a couple hours to be at the Los Angeles premiere but it was on a weeknight)

The movie was about what I expected, though the trailer hints it's not perfect, I did want to like it more than I did. As with most indie films, you get some good stuff and other parts not so much.

What I liked the most out of this movie was the campaign to push it, with excellent marketing materials and artwork. The film itself used de-aging technology for flashbacks that really helped a lot with the continuity of the characters; you didn't have to guess who was who. But if anything they were aged too much in the present since the flash backs are around 15 years ago and they look significantly younger (less than half their age).

I'm not a huge fan on gore, but I do appreciate it when it has purpose. There's a little too much here for my taste, but I'm not a gorehound. Low budget horror lovers certainly get a pay off at the end of the movie, so stick around.

As for what didn't quite work for me, I noticed in the trailer the performances just did not seem all that convincing for the situation. It's another thing I expect from indie films, but every now and then you get a goody cast and this was not that. With so many cast members, several had some okay parts, but were mostly disconnected. The only standout to me was Bryant with Morman a very close second. I liked Caliber's vocal tone and Bourke's delivery most of the time.

The score was pretty decent, as was the mix but the sound design really needed some work. Gunshots sounded too generic and it was like they were only drag and dropped in the edit. It really took me out of the film and I really wanted those parts to have more of an impact.

Unlike so many indies, I understand this is a film meant to make money. Rose being part of the cast is a no brainer for that. The script was okay though some of the best dialogue was in Gail's flashback. The Frenzy character was not likable at all and they almost had too much screen time, though it seemed like her part was intentionally done this way. I think if more of the cast had better performances and the sound design got the same treatment the practical effects did, the other minor issues are much easier to overlook.

Looking forward to seeing improvements in this team's next project!

For what is effectively a homemade gore film...the special effects are pretty good.

But that's about all the positivity I can throw at this thing.

Because the rest of it is a complete dumpster fire.

Not only is the plot convoluted as all hell.

The story around which it is based is confusing at best.

If only because of it's complete and utter implausibility.

And absolutely horrible dialogue.

It's not just bad.

It's embarrassingly bad.

Though, it's not like they get any help from the actors delivering the lines.

As they are just as atrocious.

The basic premise of the film is that we have one group of masked men, having driven another group of people, into a bar- with a third group of people- who are held hostage by the second group of people, that have been trapped inside the bar by the group of masked individuals.

With one of the people in the bar being a cannibalistic monster, in disguise, of some sort.

Whom the people outside want exposed.

Hence why they have trapped the people in the bar.

As they are holding out until it has to feed.

At least, that's my best guess.

We get the backstory of the bizarre cast of characters in a series of flashbacks that hop all over the place, from time to time, and character to character.

In a way that makes it seem like it was constructed by a child.

What makes things particularly confusing, is that it's never made evidently clear how the two groups came to be in the first place.

The whole thing leaves you with so many questions...

But the best I can tell...is that the masked men outside the bar are a group of vigilantes...who seek to out the monster that killed the one man's family.

That the second group, driven into the bar, were actually there to rob it.

That the two lesbians were planted into the second group, by the leader of the first group, because her brother was also killed by the monster.

And that the people from the bar were sacrificed, because the monster is weakest after it feeds.

But this requires a lot of reading into.

And begs the question...if they knew who the monster was...why didn't they just isolate him when he was drugged?

It almost seems like the perplexity of it all was tactically employed to keep you engaged...by the simple fact you desperately try to piece the convoluted mess together, in an attempt to understand what the hell is actually going on.

Up until the monster makes it's appearance, and it goes into full gore mode.

It's so bad, you can't help but laugh.

But f*** if it's not entertaining.

I wanted to hate this so bad.

But actually found myself kind of liking it, in the end.

Because...all faults aside...

It's so bad...it's endearing.

If only because the monster is quite cool.

And the special effects are badass.

It's still bad.

But it's entertainingly bad.

4.5 out of 10.

I don't see how anyone could rate this movie favorably. The monster is cool, especially for this no budget video. Prior to that, low achievers in a bar are invaded by more criminally involved druggies who are running from some vigilante citizens group talking about 'the monster'. After nothing happens for 100 minutes, finally the monster appears. The gorefest continues for another 13 minutes, & then we get a 4 word explanation. Aaaaand back to the gorefest for the comedic outro. No perspective, no story - not sure there was even a plot - no atmosphere, no visual interest, dialogue was meaningless...

Making an indie film is no small feat. What the makers of Craving accomplished was impressive. The production quality overall was good. The practical makeup FX was impressive.

Now to the not-so-good. Early on in the film particularly, there were a lot of focus issues that were distracting. The story could've use a couple more rewrites. It jumps around A LOT. My main issue with the story is that we're not really following around one main character. It's an ensemble piece that doesn't allow you to emotionally engage with any of the characters. At times, the music was too melodramatic, which didn't seem to fit the tone of the movie.

With all of that said, the climax will not disappoint horror fans. If you love B horror movies, I think you'll like this one.