Crushed (2025) Review

Crushed (2025) Review

Hailed as ‘one of the UK’s boldest and most distinctive filmmakers’ (Edinburgh Film Festival), Simon Rumley (Red White & Blue, The Living and the Dead) brings evil incarnate to the big screen in Crushed – billed as a bleak and sinister new thriller starring British screen favourite Steve Oram (Sightseers, The End of the F***ing World, DI Ray) as a vicar whose unwavering devotion to God is pushed to its very limits when his daughter is abducted. The film is set to make its UK digital debut on 5 October 2026, courtesy of GrimmVision.

Crushed takes Rumley’s disturbing 2012 short film P is for Pressure that featured in horror anthology The ABCs of Death and expands on the darkest of subjects, weaving the grim tale of exploitation crush videos into a feature length narrative that explores trauma, forgiveness, revenge and religion.

Set in suburbs of Bangkok, English vicar Daniel (Oram) lives a seemingly idyllic life with his wife May (May Nattaporn Rawddon) and their daughter Olivia (Margaux Dietrich). But when Olivia is exposed to a disturbing animal cruelty video, it sets off a harrowing chain of events that leads to the abduction of the innocent 10-year-old. Daniel and May are thrown headlong into an agonising journey that reveals the deepest depths of human depravity. With the support of their tight-knit community, the couple must navigate a maze of fear, faith, desperation and vengeance while trying to bring their daughter home. When the God-fearing vicar comes face to face with the greatest evil humanity has to offer, will he be able to practice the words he’s been preaching his whole life or will his faith falter?

Shot entirely on location in Thailand, the film tells not only a dark yet powerful story but also aims to raise awareness for challenging contemporary issues surrounding child trafficking and animal cruelty.

When I received the email about Crushed, I was immediately sold on the marketing promise. The accompanying blurb proclaimed that “Steve Oram delivers a powerhouse performance”, while describing the film as “not for the faint-hearted” and “a disturbingly savage tale of morality, revenge and faith” that would “push the boundaries of even the most hardened horror fan”. Well, I consider myself a hardened horror fan, and I’m also a fan of Steve Oram, so I was more than ready to have my boundaries pushed. Unfortunately, Crushed left me bored beyond belief.

There is certainly commitment from the cast, but for a film dealing with such taboo and potentially provocative subject matter, it is remarkably flat. The characterisations don’t help either, feeling less like fully developed individuals and more like generic caricatures. The result is a film that feels utterly lifeless, although perhaps that was the intention. If so, the filmmakers have certainly succeeded; unfortunately, the way Crushed is being marketed suggests that this was supposed to be a hard-hitting experience, and for me, it simply isn’t.

I genuinely wanted to like this film. I wanted to come away agreeing with the claim that it would push the boundaries of even the most hardened horror fan. Instead, Crushed became an endurance test. If the intention was to shock, it missed by more than the proverbial mile.

Much of the film is given over to endless pontification about faith, morality and the ways in which a man’s beliefs are tested. The problem is that, from where I was sitting, they never really seemed to be tested at all. Rather than provoking thought or unease, the constant philosophical musings eventually inspired little more than a giant eye roll.

And then there is that “surprise” ending. If the intention was to elicit a groan, then mission accomplished. But somehow, I doubt that was the desired reaction. Everything about Crushed appears designed to be hard-hitting and disturbing, yet the experience was more akin to cinematic Chinese water torture: repetitive, increasingly tedious and ultimately testing my patience rather than my tolerance for horror.

Steve Oram remains a performer I enjoy watching, and the cast clearly throw themselves into the material, but commitment alone cannot breathe life into a film that feels this dramatically inert. Crushed promises to challenge even the most hardened horror fan. For me, the only real challenge was making it to the end.

Crushed is on UK digital 5 October from GrimmVision