At a quick glance, the 2013 film Crush looks to be a rehash of the Alicia Silverstone-starring thriller The Crush, except now with a teenager on the receiving end of stalking. However, despite their surface similarities, the two films ultimately diverge in story. Also sweetening that pot of low genre pleasures here is the various […]
At a quick glance, the 2013 film Crush looks to be a rehash of the Alicia Silverstone-starring thriller The Crush, except now with a teenager on the receiving end of stalking. However, despite their surface similarities, the two films ultimately diverge in story. Also sweetening that pot of low genre pleasures here is the various depictions of infatuation. For this reason, Crush is more perceptive than its familiar pitch might suggest.
Director Malik Bader and writer Sonny Mallhi combined the tangibility of horror with the psychological intrigue and criminality of thrillers, as is evident from their film’s opening scene. To show it wasn’t playing around, Crush does something that even most horror films would shy away from; it bumps off a child in the first few minutes. Murders him, in fact. The death in question follows a casual chat between young friends (Ashleigh Craig, Cody Hamilton), whose adorable activity of “penny for your thoughts” turns deeply ugly. The potential for harm is undetectable here until the nameless boy makes a fatal mistake; there on the roof of that two-story house, he tells his pal that he kissed another girl. The wrong girl, in her mind.
From there the heartbroken party, after sulking like children often do, shoves her unsuspecting friend off the roof. His unanswered pleas for help are soon replaced with the sickening thud of his body hitting the ground below. With this flashback, the film staunchly sets its tone and foretells the madness to come.
Crush goes to great lengths to prove the victim’s appeal to his multiple admirers. Indeed, Lucas Till’s character Scott Norris is the sun of this small universe where, apparently, all other men his age are deemed less attractive. Evidence of Scott’s inescapable allure is first delivered with shots of his school trophies and yearbook-worthy achievements, not to mention a glimpse into his social popularity. Most of all, his athletic prowess is flaunted, namely a strapping physique that is continually shown half-clothed, clad in fitted shirts, or inches away from total undress. Undoubtedly, these moments elicit a frisson of desire in Scott’s devotees — maybe the audience as well.