Good morning, House of Madness residents:
Anticipation can be an incredible feeling, almost or even able to surpass the feeling you get when the moment you've been anticipating arrives. That fat Philly cheesesteak you ordered on Door Dash that you can't stop thinking about until you finally hear the angelic chime of your doorbell. The big game for your favourite sports team that you've been pumping yourself up about all week is still 5 days away, but oh boy does that anticipation eat away at your very soul. When the reward meets the standards of the anticipation, it's one of the best feelings in the world, but when the feeling that's been building up inside is met with a kick to the junk with a steel toed boot, it can be extremely disappointing and frustrating.
Following the death of her husband, Beth (Danika Vandersteen) is left to care for their young son Lowen (Woodrow Graves) by herself. Clearly overwhelmed, Beth decides to take Lowen to her mother's secluded beach house on the ocean that has been sitting vacant, for a little R&R to get away from it all. Soon after arriving, Beth meets an old man named Joseph (Terrence Murray) who shows a keen interest in Lowen, and gives Beth a case of the heebie jeebies. Soon after, Beth's doorbell starts ringing at all hours of the night, yet every time she goes to inspect, there's no one there. Every time Beth even begins to feel like she's succeeding in her quest for mental tranquility, she's met with resistance from the outside world in one form or another, and her sanity slowly starts spiraling out of control. Is everything exactly as it seems, and Lowen could be in some kind of danger, or is it all in her mind, stemming from exhaustion and grief? It's a good thing the film takes the last 4 minutes to try and explain itself in a desperate barrage of clips and scenes from Beth's past, or we would have had a terrible movie instead of the incredibly dull one we received instead.
The main issue with "The Crescent" is that nothing, and I mean nothing of significance happens for long stretches of time and when something finally does happen, it really isn't all that interesting. All the actors (except the kid playing Lowen - he was brilliant) seemed to just be mailing it in, and more than happy to just read their lines and collect their paychecks, but the film's ending is what ultimately sinks it. The film hints at certain things and blatantly tells us others, but the entire film we're left wondering what the fuck is going on, and then in the last few minutes the film tries to cram all the answers together and spoon feed us an ending that just ends up being a convoluted mess. There are slow burns, there are fires which were never slow, but just needed to be lit, and then there's this film - a raging dumpster fire in the pouring rain.
Madness Meter: 3.9/10
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