Starring: Amber Clayton, Eddie Baroo, Ditch Davey, and Nicholas Bell
The January/February movie slump continues, even in the indie world. The latest entry is Crawlspace. Crawlspace is an Australian film set in the middle of the desert. The Australian and U.S. governments established a secret underground research facility in a remote location. A disaster has taken place at the facility and the government has lost contact with the underground inhabitants. An elite military force is sent to the facility to search and destroy the test subjects/targets and secure the facility. One of the targets is Eve (Amber Clayton).
Romeo (Ditch Davey) leads the team on their mission. When the elite force lands at the site, they discover mutilated bodies, and a few of their targets still alive. They immediately kill most of the targets, except for Eve. Romeo refuses to kill Eve because she is the wife he thought had drowned. Romeo is baffled that she has mysteriously survived. He insists on keeping her alive and taking her to the rendezvous point, much to the chagrin of his team. Unfortunately for them, what they encounter down in the facility is menacing and begins to take out the team. From a zombie to a deranged King Kong like mutant ape to a vicious dog, the elite team faces one deadly evil after another. Romeo, Eve and the strike team discover just what sort of testing is being conducted at the facility, and their mission turns into a fight for their own survival.
The only positive comment that I have about Crawlspace is that the film is less than an hour and half in length so my torture was short in duration. The premise behind Crawlspace is familiar—the “government” is involved in some type of sinister secret testing to create a weapon of war and they lose control of their weapon (i.e. Resident Evil). Crawlspace lacks originality, depth, suspense and creativity. The plot is not fully developed, and the characters are one dimensional and generally uninteresting. Moreover, the special effects are so cheesy that the film actually veers towards the corny. Honestly, for a moment it felt like I stepped back into the 1980s with the film—which in 2013 is simply unacceptable.
There is no need to belabor it. Crawlspace earns a wasted rating. You will need several shots to make it through the film. I would not recommend seeing this in theaters, On Demand, or even wasting time watching it for free on F/X.
