This article was written by Nick Glover.
Director Chris Skotchdopole’s feature debut Crumb Catcher shows promise but ultimately lacks the substance it needs to make it successful. With enough technical savvy to keep it interesting, the film loses steam quickly when its writing becomes the film’s center point.
Crumb Catcher follows a recently married couple: Shane (Rigo Garay), a non-fiction writer who just secured his first book deal, and Leah (Ella Rae Peck), a literature industry professional who works at the publishing house to which Shane sold his. After Leah’s mom (Rebecca Watson) gives the couple an envelope of cash for their wedding favors, a pair of workers at the wedding get the idea of holding the couple up for their money.
John (John Speredakos), a worker at the party, develops an intense attachment to the couple, following them on their honeymoon. John is joined by Rose (Lorraine Farris), his partner-in-crime and in life. The duo finds more and more absurd ways to extort the newlyweds of their wedding money; first, via blackmail of a video of Shane’s infidelity with Rose, and then, through John’s attempt to get Shane and Leah to invest in the titular crumb catcher—a device that saves people from waiters getting in the way of conversation.
The irony is at face value here. John is pitching a device that would save the couple from him. It’s dryly funny throughout, if not a bit on the nose. The device is futile in many ways, but it’s wonderful watching John’s face break when the newlyweds tell him that, when people go out to eat, they don’t want to sweep up their own crumbs. Speredakos distorts and twists in anguish so perfectly for the scene.
Speredakos is easily the highlight of the cast, where the married couple gives the typical overacting, trope-filled performances expected of the genre. That’s not to say the performances are bad; they’re just commonplace. Farris is muted in her performance, but the character feels like an afterthought in the writing anyway, leaving her performance to be obscured by the remainder of the cast. This leaves Speredakos to be the frontman of a small, underwhelming cast.
His performance is over the top, and there is a crazed look in his eyes that is absolutely remarkable. His screwball nature is so perfectly believable that John (the character) is easily the scariest part of the film. His wispy hair and social ineptitude add to the magic of the character and suck the audience right into his beautifully horrific charm.
The film’s weak point is easily its writing. The writing trio of Skotchdopole, Garay and Larry Fessenden—an actor who has written a series of video games and horror flicks—drops the ball. Skotchdopole, who is credited with the screenplay, certainly does well in the director’s chair, but it seems writing may not be his strong suit. The dialogue feels stilted and basic, reminiscent of some mix of homemade horror and a bad CW television show.
Visually, however, the film is quite remarkable. At first quaint, when the newlyweds get to their honeymoon estate, the cinematography soon elevates. Shifting to wider, deeper shots, Crumb Catcher forces the viewer to see the isolation of the couple’s accommodations. When the criminals arrive, the depth of the shots are filled with hints of horror—movement in the background or stillness amongst the chaos.
And the film’s drunken climax is shot with a staggering vertigo. The camera swoops and drifts along the ending’s country roads. Blurring vision and an anxiety weight take over the once serene scenes. Though these things don't redeem the film, the visuals are the closest Crumb Catcher gets to a saving grace. Paired with eerie sound design and a simple, yet impeccable score, the final half hour is the film at its best. This half hour is still flawed, but it’s the closest the film feels to successful; the dread is palpable, and the film looks sickly ravishing, its darkness overbearing and epic.
With this debut at least, Skotchdopole seems to have what I call the Bradley Cooper problem. They’re both solid filmmakers, but if you give them enough free reign and allow them to write their own scripts, they will find something to detract from their own success. Crumb Catcher may be worth a watch for horror fans who like cinematics more than writing, but for an average audience, one that cares about story and dialogue, the film may not be the right choice.
Crumb Catcher is now in theaters.
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