Ray
(Henrik Norlen) helps the seemingly innocent Tara (Natalie Dickinson) with some
heavy suitcases, blissfully unaware of the fact that she’s a psycho killer (and
that her latest victim is inside the baggage).
She soon seduces Ray, becomes obsessed with him, starts following him,
showing up to his work, and harassing him.
When he rebuffs her many advances, Tara takes to framing him for murder
before kidnapping him.
She’s
Crushed is the umpteenth variation of Fatal Attraction where a sexual
indiscretion leads to head games, full-on stalking, and straight-up
murder. What makes this one a bit
different is that we pretty much know she’s a psycho from the get-go from scenes
of her torturing and murdering people early on.
In fact, the Torture Porn aspect helps this one stick out from the rest of the
back, although the gore itself leaves something to be desired.
It
also suffers from a low budget, so it looks fairly shoddy. The attempts at atmosphere (they went
overboard with the overly green lighting in Tara’s apartment) are a bit clunky
too. Because the gore looks kind of
chintzy, the torture scenes (like the hand-in-the-garbage-disposal sequence)
don’t have much of a kick.
She’s
Crushed remains watchable thanks to the not-bad performance by Dickinson, who
makes for a credible psycho. You’ve got
to respect anyone who shaves her armpits with a Bowie knife. She’s particularly funny during the scene
where she confronts Norlen in front of his co-worker. Norlen makes for an incredibly bland leading
man though, and there’s no chemistry between him and Dickinson, which lessens
the overall impact. The backstory with
him being a veteran is handled clumsily and adds little to his character. Dickinson’s backstory (she suffers from
sexual abuse from her demented father) works slightly better, but it doesn’t
have a satisfying payoff to pull it all together.
AKA: Crushed.
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