Crypsis (2019) Review
Crypsis (2019) Review
A camping trip goes horribly wrong in writer/director Paul Anthony Rogers’ unnerving CRYPSIS, available On Demand and on DVD December 17 from Uncork’d Entertainment.
A group of friends make a bet to survive on an island. Unbeknownst to them, a mysterious old creature begins hunting them throughout the night. What began as an innocent bet quickly turns into a fight for survival. As night falls, this becomes a fight to the death that no one had anticipated.
Rogers co-stars alongside Michael Armata, Anthony Hoang, Jordan Mitchell-Love and Eddie Nason in a pulse-racing profusion of Stranger Things and Predator.
Written and directed by Paul Anthony Rogers, who also stars, CRYPSIS is essentially PREDATOR on a budget. However whereas the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie took time to build suspense and a credible story, flesh out the characters and occasionally surprise the viewer, CRYPSIS does the exact opposite simply adhering to the barebones structure of ‘beast chases men around and kills them’.
CRYPSIS starts off promisingly with better acting than one would normally see in lower budget fare, and better framing and editing too. What lets CRYPSIS down is the film’s writing and pacing. It’s in too much of a hurry to get to the island, which wouldn’t be so bad if there was something more than men shouting and being chased around to sit through once the action transferred there.
It would also help if character actions/motivations actually made some sense but by and large they don’t – for example, you have a guy telling another not to have the flashlight on as it will draw attention to their whereabouts, but he does so by SHOUTING VERY LOUDLY, which would surely bring unwanted attention their way anyway! And speaking of shouting, there’s way too much of it. It’s meant to convey the terror of their situation but instead it becomes very wearing, and instead of creating the necessary drama, it gives the viewer a headache instead.
There’s a last minute ‘surprise’ which I felt should have been incorporated earlier. It would have given the film the extra layer that it so desperately needed. There’s plenty of ambition behind CRYPSIS and enough form to suggest that if writer/director Paul Anthony Rogers can deliver the goods if he has a stronger story/script to work from.
