Crushed (2 Stars)

This is the ninth film in the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival.

It was difficult for me to decide on a rating for this film. Maybe my rating is too low. It's doubtlessly a good film, but so much of the content disturbs me that it's a film I regret having watched.

The film takes place in Thailand, but most of the dialogue is in English. Father Daniel is a pastor who leads a small Christian church in Bangkok. His daughter Olivia is shown a horror film by a boy from her school. I like the definition given by the boy:

"You know what horror movies are? They have monsters and blood and stuff".

I wouldn't agree with it as a general definition for horror movies, but it's what most people think horror movies are about. The boy shows Olivia a short film that traumatises her. A woman dressed in lingerie crushes a cat with her high heels. That's the blood and stuff he promised. It's disturbing, both the killing and making a nine-year-old girl watch it. I could accept a woman crushing a man, but a cat? That's sick.

Can it get worse? Yes. Olivia's cat runs away, and she leaves home searching for it. She follows the boy when she sees him buying tortoises, and she arrives in a house where films are made of a woman crushing animals. The house's owner sees a new opportunity to make money: he kidnaps Olivia and offers to sell her to a rich American paedophile, known only as Mr. Jeffreys. A film is made of Olivia performing sexual acts with the man, which are fortunately off-camera, but nevertheless disgusting.

The filmmaker (whose name I've forgotten) shows remorse by interrupting the film and letting Olivia leave. This is where a bizarre twist happens. Olivia suspects him of killing her cat, so she blames him for abusing her. She denies the existence of Mr. Jeffries.

Other things happen in the film, but I'll stop there. I don't have the stomach for it.