July 25, 2024
by Carla Hay
Directed by Chris Skotchdopole
Culture Representation: Taking place in New York state, the horror film “Crumb Catcher” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with one Latino) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: Two newlyweds experience blackmail and terror from another couple who were server employees at the wedding.
Culture Audience: “Crumb Catcher” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching “slow burn” horror movies about situations that could happen in real life.
“Crumb Catcher” takes a while to become the horror movie that it appears to be, but once the terror scenes start, they don’t let up. It’s an effective and convincing thriller about two newlyweds whose honeymoon descends into chaos caused by another couple. The ending of “Crumb Catcher” might not be defined enough for some viewers. However, if viewers can appreciate movies whose conclusions are open to intepretation, then the ending of “Crumb Catcher” is more likely to have people thinking about the movie, long after it’s over.
Written and directed by Chris Skotchdopole, “Crumb Catcher” is his feature-film debut and shows he has talent for making anxiety-filled scenes. The movie was filmed on location in upstate New York. The beginning of the film shows newlywed couple Shane Castillo (played by Rigo Garay) and Leah (played by Ella Rae Peck) at their wedding reception, They are posing for couple photos for a talkative photographer named Garry (played by David Macke), who asks Shane and Leah a lot of questions about their relationship, such as how they met, as Garry directs the couple on which poses he wants for the photos.
Through this conversation and other conversations that happen in the movie, viewers eventually find out this information about Shane and Leah, who both live in New York City: Shane is a writer who has recently completed his first novel that is about to be published. The novel is about a father-son relationship that is based on the troubled relationship that Shane has with his own father.
Leah works at the unnamed book publishing company that is publishing Shane’s novel. Because he is a first-time, unproven novelist, Shane got a very small advance for the novel (only $5,000), but Leah is expecting the novel to be a hit. She has already made arrangements for Shane to have a few interviews at high-profile media oulets.
Leah is a lot more concerned than Shane about his book becoming a bestseller. She feels personally invested because (as she reminds Shane in an argument they have later), she helped him get this book deal because of her connections in her job. Leah’s boss, who is an executive vice president at the company, has generously let Leah and Shane use her spacious and upscale home as the place where Leah and Shane will be staying for their honeymoon. And because “Crumb Catcher” is a horror movie, it should come as no surprise that this house is in a remote wooded area.
Leah’s mother Joanie (played by Rebecca Watson) paid for the wedding, which is a typical middle-class wedding that doesn’t look too extravangant. At the wedding reception, there is tension between Leah and Shane. Leah has to tell Shane to thank Joanie for paying for the wedding. Shane seems irritated because he acts like Leah is being a neurotic nag. At one point, Shane walks away from Leah in a huff.
Shane’s unnamed father was not invited to the wedding. There’s a scene later in the movie where Shane listens to a voice mail message from his father (voiced by Eddie Castillo), who sounds drunk when he congratulates Shane on the wedding. It’s implied that Shane’s father has alcoholism. Leah says to Shane about not inviting Shane’s father to the wedding: “It’s not that we’re embarrassed. It would’ve been too stressful.”
Taking all of this information into account, it’s very easy to see what’s going on in the Shane/Leah relationship. This marriage is going to have some major problems that have to do with Shane feeling inadequate or emasculated by domineering and opinionated Leah. She obviously makes more money than he does and is more ambitious than Shane. At one point, when Shane tells Lisa he’s having doubts about wanting his book to be published, she gets angry because she thinks if Shane backs out of his book deal, it will make her look bad at her job.
There’s no mention of Shane’s mother (it would be easy to assume that she’s deceased), and the only parent whom Shane has is debilitated by alcholism. Even at the wedding reception, which is only in the first 10 minutes of the movie, all the relatives who are there seem to be from Lisa’s family. In other words, Shane has all the makings of someone who is close to having an identity crisis.
Something strange happens to Shane at the wedding reception, which apparently took place in a hotel. Shane wakes up in a bedroom feeling groggy and not knowing how he got there. Because he had been drinking alcohol at the reception, he assumes that the alcohol was stronger than he thought. This blackout is later explained in the movie.
The company that catered this wedding is called Crystal View. After the wedding reception, when Shane and Leah are about to leave together, a Crystal View waiter named John Spinellie (played by John Speredakos), a flustered-looking middle-aged man, rushes up to them and makes a profuse apology. John tells Shane and Leah something went wrong with the wedding cake topping, which won’t be available as a souvenir. Instead, John gives Shane and Leah a free bottle of champagne to make amends.
Shane and Leah plan to drive to the honeymoon getaway house in a 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass that has the words “Just Married” written on the back window. This back window later is used to great effect in a suspenseful car chase scene that happens at night. The drive to the house is fairly relaxed and uneventful.
When Shane and Leah get to the house, there are more signs that Leah and Shane are on different wavelengths. He’s eager for some honeymoon sex, but she makes him wait in the bedroom while she awkwardly puts on some lingerie with a garter belt in a nearby bathroom. When she emerges from the bathroom, she goes underneath the bed covers and seems very self-conscious of showing Shane what she looks like in this sexy outfit.
“Crumb Catcher” has a deliberate buildup to the real horror of the story. It’s the movie’s way of showing how people can be caught off guard and led into very dangerous situations. Leah notices almost immediately that there’s a car in the driveway that she’s never seen before.
Wthout going into too many details, it’s enough to say that John somehow found out where Shane and Leah are staying for the honeymoon because he shows up at their house’s front door unexpectedly at night. John initially says he found the wedding cake topping and wants to give it to them, along with a bottle of liquor as a gift. Leah is automatically suspicious and asks John how he found out the address of the house where Leah and Shane are staying.
John quickly mumbles something about how Leah’s uncle Leo mentioned it in a Facebook group. John is very chatty and doesn’t want to leave. He wants to show Leah and Shane his “revolutionary” invention called the Crumb Catcher. Eventually, the real motive for John’s surprise visit is revealed. And it’s motive that is as offbeat as it is sinister.
John has an accomplice: His fidgety wife Rose Spinellie (played by Lorraine Farris), who worked as a bartender at the wedding reception. Part of their plan involves blackmailing someone in this newlywed couple. Considering the chain of events that happen in the movie, it’s easy to assume that John and Rose have done the same thing to other victims by using their jobs at Crystal View to look for potential targets.
“Crumb Catcher” is at its absolute best in the last third of the movie when all hell breaks loose. Shane, Leah, John and Rose are the four people who get the vast majority of the movie screen time. These two couples end up battling each other in more ways than one.
There’s a nerve-wracking sequence where one of these four people has consumed a lot of alcohol in a short period of time and is driving very fast on a dark, deserted road. The cinematography (by Adam Carboni) is excellent in immersing viewers in these scenes, which are filmed from the drunk person’s perspective. It leads to some truly “edge of your seat” moments to see that will happen next.
All four of the principal “Crumb Catcher” cast members stand out for different reasons. Peck gives a very authentic-looking performance because Leah’s reactions (especially to unpredictable villain John) are very realistic. Garay gives a very watchable performance, considering Shane is a character who doesn’t open up easily, and there are a lot of unanswered questions about Shane’s life before he met Leah. Unlike Leah, Shane is someone who keeps a lot of his emotions inside and is reluctant to talk about things that are bothering him.
Speredakos makes John the type of creep who is unsettling but also who shows enough vulnerable insecurity that can make people wonder if they would be too harsh if they told John to go away. At one point, Shane and Leah wonder if John is really a menace or if John is harmless. Leah and Shane speculate that John could be on the autism spectrum or might have a personality disorder.
Farris’ tense performance as Rose is the yin to John’s yang in their co-dependent relationship. Rose appears to be shrewder than unhinged John, but John is more skilled at getting the upper hand in situations where he wants control. “Crumb Catcher” does not reinvent the horror stereotype of terror in a remote wooded area. However, because of a very memorable main villain and a weird invention, along with great suspense, “Crumb Catcher” is a uniquely frightful movie that will catch many viewers off guard by how quickly danger escalates.
Doppelgänger Releasing released “Crumb Catcher” in select U.S. cinemas on July 19, 2024. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on August 20, 2024.