One of my favorite things about attending the FilmQuest Film Festival is walking into a movie knowing absolutely nothing about what I’m about to experience.
Sometimes you discover a hidden gem, sometimes you get something completely insane, and occasionally you get a movie that makes you question whether your stomach is strong enough to survive the screening.
The Crawling falls somewhere in the middle of all three, and holy hell, what a bizarre ride this turned out to be! This nasty little sci-fi horror movie throws psychological terror, cosmic horror, and some seriously disgusting body horror into a blender and cranks that sucker up until things get completely out of control.
It’s strange, it’s intense, it’s incredibly uncomfortable, and despite a few things that nearly pushed me over the edge, I had a damn good time watching it!
The story follows Mike (Will Brittain), a disgraced cop who retreats to a remote farmhouse with his therapist wife, Emma (Katherine Hughes), hoping to get away from the troubles weighing on their lives.
Unfortunately for Mike, their little countryside getaway turns into an absolute nightmare when a mysterious cosmic entity begins tormenting him, attacking his mind and body while driving his paranoia into some seriously disturbing territory.
Writer and director Christian Everhard, making his feature directorial debut, initially plays things like a psychological thriller, slowly messing with the characters’ heads before letting the story mutate into something far more grotesque.
What I enjoyed about the movie is how it keeps shifting beneath your feet. Just when you think you’ve figured out what kind of horror movie you’re watching, it starts getting stranger, crazier, and more physically disturbing.
There are even some interesting ideas about gender roles and relationship dynamics worked into the madness, giving the story a little more to chew on than your typical alien nightmare.
It’s an ambitious combination of ideas, and I appreciated that Everhard was willing to get so wildly weird with his first feature.
Now, we need to talk about Will Brittain because this poor guy goes through absolute hell in this movie!
Brittain throws himself into the role with a level of physical commitment that I couldn’t help but admire. His performance is frantic, exhausting, and downright animalistic at times.
The guy spends a ridiculous amount of the movie gagging, choking, gurgling, retching, and making some of the most horrendous noises I’ve ever heard come out of a human being.
At first, I was impressed by how convincing it all sounded, but eventually I found myself sitting there thinking, “Dude, PLEASE stop making that noise!” It’s so loud, so wet, and so relentlessly disgusting that I actually started gagging myself.
By the time the climax rolled around, the movie had turned the bodily misery up to an almost comical level of grossness. I was practically begging for five seconds of relief!
And here’s something completely nuts: Brittain was apparently so committed to making the performance convincing that, for a scene involving Mike vomiting blood, he drank a bunch of pomegranate juice and actually threw it back up on camera!
That’s some absolutely unhinged dedication to your craft, and as much as those sounds made me want to crawl out of my own skin, I’ve got to give the guy some serious respect. He went for it, and then kept going long after most actors would’ve tapped out.
Thankfully, there’s a lot more to appreciate here than one man’s seemingly endless battle with his digestive system. The performances are strong across the board, with Hughes bringing an important emotional counterweight to Brittain’s increasingly deranged physical performance.
Robert Lewis Stephenson is also part of the cast, helping round out a movie that asks its actors to sell some pretty outrageous material.
Visually, I thought The Crawling looked fantastic. The filmmaker clearly has an eye for creating unsettling imagery, and the cinematography gives the isolated farmhouse an oppressive atmosphere that makes the characters’ situation feel increasingly hopeless.
The visual effects are another highlight, particularly the creature work from Steve Wang and Cleve Gunderman of Onyx Forge. There’s some really cool, freaky stuff going on here, and I loved how the supernatural and alien elements gradually invade the more grounded psychological horror.
The director’s affection for the paranoid thrillers of the 1970s, existential horror, and grotesque body horror comes through in the filmmaking. He clearly loves this kind of twisted material, and that enthusiasm gives the movie a fantastically deranged personality.
When the cosmic horror really starts kicking in, the movie embraces its own insanity, and that’s when I was having the most fun.
Now, as much as I enjoyed The Crawling, I have to talk about the absolutely disgusting amount of gagging, gurgling, and vomiting sounds that come pouring out of this movie.
Some of this stuff is downright revolting! There were moments when I was sitting there physically gagging along with Mike, wondering just how much more my stomach could take. But here’s the thing, I completely understand what the filmmaker was going for.
This is body horror that’s meant to get under your skin and make you physically uncomfortable. The sounds are so exaggerated, so wet, and so relentlessly gross that they almost become their own form of psychological torture. And you know what? Maybe that’s exactly the reaction the filmmakers wanted!
If the goal was to make the audience feel even a fraction of the physical misery Mike is experiencing, mission accomplished! I certainly felt it! By the time the movie reaches its completely insane climax, the bodily horrors have been cranked up to such ridiculous levels that I couldn’t help but admire the commitment to making the experience as unpleasant as possible.
Would I have personally dialed back some of those noises? Absolutely! My stomach would’ve appreciated it! But I also wouldn’t want Everhard to compromise his own twisted vision just to make me more comfortable. That’s part of what makes horror so much fun.
Sometimes a movie should make you squirm, and The Crawling practically turns it into an endurance sport. It’s definitely not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but for horror fans who love their movies nasty, visceral, and completely unhinged, this is exactly the kind of madness they’re looking for.
I walked away from The Crawling having enjoyed myself. It’s a wonderfully messed-up little horror film with strong performances, impressive creature effects, some disturbing imagery, and a filmmaker who clearly isn’t interested in playing things safe.
I love discovering movies like this at festivals because they remind me how much strange, imaginative, and completely bonkers storytelling is happening in independent horror. Everhard has put together a confident and energetic feature debut that takes some big swings, and while not every creative choice worked for me, I appreciated the ambition.
This is the kind of movie that will probably divide horror fans, and I can absolutely understand why. It’s gross, bizarre, sometimes exhausting, and occasionally feels like it’s daring you to keep watching.
But if you’re a fan of sci-fi horror, cosmic nightmares, and nasty practical creature effects, there’s a lot here to sink your teeth into.
Just maybe don’t eat a big meal before watching it. Seriously. I enjoyed this crazy movie, but my gag reflex would very much like to file a formal complaint.
