Craving starts with a couple of local police officers walking through the aftermath of a blood bath in a dive bar outside of town, where they find only one survivor. Flashback to the night before, some locals are enjoying themselves at that same bar, when they hear gunshots outside, the owner (Felissa Rose) gets killed when she tries to investigate, and then the bar and it's patrons are taken over at gunpoint. Who are these people who are holding them hostage? And who are the people outside that seem to want to kill these people? As the night goes on, the gang outside starts pushing to come in, and the gang inside is starting to fracture. All this happens while one of their members is ill. Could he just be a junky going through withdrawals, or is it something more sinister?
This is more of a slow-burner for a horror film, and for the most part it works, so I couldn't figure out why it felt like it was dragging. Yes, the hostage scenario can be hard to mitigate, because it can be repetitive, but the story did a great job adding elements throughout to keep it interesting. When we got to the end though, where we have a fantastic monster reveal, plus Horton goes all out with the practical effects in the killings, that's when it hit me: because we got the ending at the beginning, I couldn't wait to get back there and see what happened, and everything before it was just prolonging the inevitable. In that sense, maybe sticking the end at the end instead of teasing it at the beginning would've been a better bet. All that said, the monster is fantastic, and as I mentioned above Horton sets up a great reveal for it; I loved the practical effects, no punches are pulled, it's all kinds of blood and guts; and perhaps best of all, Horton's direction combined with Sophia Cacciola's cinematography gave us some really well-shot scenes that enhanced the actors' performances, ramped up the suspense, and accentuated the horror. Yes, I couldn't wait to get to the end after seeing the end at the beginning, but that ending delivered, which is what you want.
I believe this is the fourth film of J. Horton's that we've done on the site, the others being Monsters in the Woods, Deceitful, and Trap. Out of those, I still have Trap as my favorite of his, but this is probably my second-favorite now. This has elements of the suspenseful interplay between the characters that Trap had, which was important to keep the hostage scenario interesting, but then he goes all out at the end when we get the monster reveal and the monster starts killing people. The other aspect of this that I thought worked really well was his editing. I'd seen a couple of his documentaries and the editing work he'd done on those, so it was cool to see it play such an important role in this film. It's part of the art of film making that, in more modern contexts, is often used to make a movie something different from what a director initially wanted, maybe after a studio, producer, or even actor has their say, so to see it used here to enhance a director's vision was refreshing.
As a writer myself, I know one of the toughest things to do is to not fall so much in love with your characters that you can't put them through the ringer, or even kill them off, but it didn't seem like Horton or his co-writer, Gregory Blair, had that problem at all. Pretty much everyone gets it, and gets it in horrific fashion. One of the interesting things was, despite having so many characters for a film like this, because of the way it played out where we get most of the action at the end, it gave us time to get to know a lot of them, so when their head was ripped open or their entrails were ripped out and thrown across the bar, they weren't simply "store owner number 2," but also they weren't playing types, like "Zack the Jerk Guy who we can't wait to see get it." It's something we don't usually see in a horror film, to put that much work into creating people who are going to die by the end, but it added another layer here.
This film has a bit of a "Final Girl" element in Rachel Amanda Bryant's Shiloh character, but the weird thing is, out of all the characters, she doesn't get much of a backstory. Other characters get flashbacks or more plot exposition that give us a better sense of who they are and what their motivations are, and I feel like Shiloh could've used that as well. How did she end up working at that bar? What is it about her that would make her a candidate to be the one who survives the beast's attack? One thing I liked about the flashbacks is it felt like it gave the actors whose characters had them more material that they could draw from, which in turn made their performances more authentic. It's an interesting idea that I had never considered before, because many films use other actors in the flashbacks, like younger versions of the characters, which doesn't give the actor that extra layer to build from that they get when they're performing the flashback themselves. In microbudget films like these, with tight shooting schedules, I think small touches like that can make a huge difference.
Finally if you're not following J. Horton on YouTube, you should be, because he produces videos on the business of film making (you can also see clips of the videos in reel format on his Instagram). Even someone like myself who doesn't make movies, the information is invaluable, as it pulls back the curtain and gives more insight into how the sausage is made; but also his tips on proper social media promotion apply to anyone with something they're trying to sell, including my novels. He both demystifies the process, but also doesn't sugarcoat anything. Like when he talks about your social media strategy, it's not a silver bullet or a magical way to game the system, it's a lot of work, but he's showing where he's found you can get the most out of that work. There always entertaining and insightful watches, and worth checking out.
And with that, let's wrap this up. You can currently catch this on Tubi here in the States. It's definitely worth checking out, I really enjoyed it, and streaming on Tubi is a great way to support an indie filmmaker without breaking your bank.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17069062
And my newest novel, Don's House in the Mountains, is available now on Amazon! Click the image to buy.
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