An obnoxious inventor wreaks havoc on an upstate honeymoon in Chris Skotchdopole’s tepid psychological thriller.
Chris Skotchdopole’s feature directorial debut sounds like it might be about a creature who eats babies from under their high chair. If only.
Instead, it’s an aspirationally farcical home invasion thriller that never fully thrills, despite a game cast that does its darnedest to liven up an unfocused script — Skotchdopole wrote and edited his film, too — that’s fashioned from genre odds and ends.
The film opens as Shane (Rigo Garay) and Leah (Ella Rae Peck) head to upstate New York to spend their honeymoon at a luxe home they’ve borrowed from Leah’s boss at the publishing house where Shane’s debut novel is to be released. As night falls, there’s a knock at the door and they let in John (John Speredakos), an obnoxious cater waiter from their wedding, and his con artist wife, Rose (Lorraine Farris).
Together, the two uninvited grifters reveal a half-baked blackmail plot that centers on a sex video and an investment opportunity in John’s prized invention: a high-end table crumber, that tool fancy restaurants use to sweep between courses. A motormouth, John won’t take no for an answer, and his abrasive entrepreneurialism and irritating demeanor — far deadlier than any hatchet — set the film on a mildly violent path that hopscotches between “The Cable Guy,” “Shark Tank” and “Funny Games.”
At the last minute, Skotchdopole throws in a bloody brawl and a shootout, but they aren’t enough to salvage a film that doesn’t quite know how to effectively manipulate issues of class and self-doubt so that his scary movie leaves a mark.
Crumb Catcher
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes. In theaters.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
