The Craving (2008 Video) User Reviews

An interesting B-grader.

[DigitalRevenantX7 · 4/10 · 26 August 2015]

A group of friends heading to the "Burning Man" festival in Mexico take a wrong turn & end up stranded in the desert. Driving around they reach a dilapidated hut where a mysterious man disables their van with a shotgun. In defending themselves, they accidentally kill the man. With nowhere to go the group set up tents near the hut to spend the night there. But once night falls they are suddenly attacked by a mysterious creature that emits an intoxicating stench.

A while ago I reviewed a film called Trespassers, which concerned a group of friends who head to a remote location for fun but are attacked by crazed cannibals once night falls. It seems that somebody out there saw Trespassers & decided to try their own hand at making a similar film. Enter The Craving.

The Craving is an interesting film in some aspects, despite its cheapness. Of course it's nothing especially good but does have its moments. The cast only number about seven or eight, not including those who are just passing through the film; the location is restricted to a remote run-down shack in the middle of the desert & the creature is only seen in shadow or extreme close-up shots. I thought that not revealing too much about the creature, aside from its carnivorous appetite & that the powerful stench it emits can make a person high was a smart move to make the possibility of sequels more likely, although it would be hard to make a follow-up picture without messing with the atmosphere of the film. The film takes its time in setting the scenario but once the action starts it attains a modest intensity. The actors give decent performances & the gore, while cheap, looks reasonably realistic.

The Craving

[Scarecrow-88 · 3/10 · 11 February 2011]

The tiresome shortcut plot is once again used in this clichéd desert horror flick about a group of young adults on a road trip in their van(yawn)to the Burning Man festival. Yes, all of what I described has been duplicated multiple times in the past so originality vacates the premises rather quickly. Some wacko feeds this creature dogs and may just get a chance to nourish the flesh eating monster with humans instead when the van loaded with amorous teens come driving down his dirt road. So therein lies the plot, you can now fill in the blanks rather easily. The kids get lost, of course, find the nutcase who shoots their van with a shot gun leaving them stranded, stuck at his ramshackle abode until they can figure out a feasible plan to get themselves out of their current predicament. The driver gets in a scuffle with the hick lunatic, shooting the maniac in the process. The crazy's pick-up truck doesn't start, they are scared out of their wits, and worse yet a monster lurks somewhere in the darkness. The usual includes swearing, make-out sessions, tits, entrails, bickering back and forth, heated exchanges, the blame game, drug use, guys with their shirts off exposing their sculpted bodies for the ladies, cell phones and vehicles that don't work, and murky nighttime sequences where we can hardly see anything. The creature which tears apart it's victims while eating them ferociously is never fully seen. Most creative aspect to the movie is that the creature emits a nasty aroma that seductively addicts those who smell from it too long! Despite the overuse of the isolation theme, even something as mediocre as THE CRAVING uses it at times effectively, maybe because the desert setting helps, because you can feel the piercing sun, not to mention the fact that those lost are unfamiliar with their surroundings.

Mediocre horror flick...

[dwpollar · 4/10 · 26 August 2011]

1st watched 8/24/2011 --(Dir-Sean Dillon): Mediocre horror flick that was obviously made on a very low budget, but does keep you interested for a lot of the movie. The movie is basically about a monster that comes out at night and feeds, but also has a scent that makes those around it high and wanting it to be there despite the evil and death that it brings. This is definitely an interesting twist on the typical eat-em-up and kill'em flick, but there isn't enough consistency in the direction of the film to make it tight. There is your typical sex happening at the silliest times(and too often), like when the couples are afraid for their lives, and occasional bad dialogue – especially when one character is told to "be strong" too many times by too many characters. These things definitely give you the feeling that the director needed more help than he was given money for. Despite this, the movie has good camera work, sounds and effects surrounding the monster and he does a good job of not revealing it's looks 'til the very end of the movie. There is definitely hope for the director, Sean Dillon, and I will be keeping an eye out for what he does next. A watchable film, with unfortunately too many faults but maybe a promising director's early work.

Dumbos + sex + monster = an OK movie

[ansell-72879 · 5/10 · 25 June 2021]

The Craving, Death Valley was considered a title for some releases, was filmed on tuppence (2c), figuratively speaking. I'm certain a bigger budget would have been appreciated but to director Sean Dillon's credit, he pulls off a pretty, worthwhile movie despite limitations.

It has the general appearance of being filmed on an occasionally handheld Google Pixel 4a Black phone. No point in complaining, it's the standard with movies of this caliber.

The production company is called Biscuits and Gravy. Can't say the viewer wasn't warned. I'd have had different expectations from Caviar and Champagne.

The Craving came out in December of 2008 and was up against the likes of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice. Who am I kidding, The Craving is not quite in the league of these releases but does hold its own as a reasonable example of low budget horror.

It includes the expected but gratuitous liberal lashings of nudity and sex of its kind but in fairness the death ratio is five men to 1 woman so it can make some tenuous claims to a liberated view with regards feminism.

The acting is sort of naturalistic, occasionally clumsy but naturalistic i.e. Unaffected. Think the opposite of the great Vincent Price.

Curtis Krick, the script writer, has worked mostly on television series but did have a role in the production of Land of the Lost. His work in The Craving is credible. The dialogue is engaging enough and given the genre and the specific context, believable.

Sean Dillon has worked with Tricia Allan in other films but the standout here is Lesley Patterson. Patterson, as Jeannie, dies a gruesome death of the type which inevitably requires half a mannequin but gives it her all up to and including her demise. As is the case in the world of micro budget horror movies, Patterson is a multi-tasker. She has been a producer, actresses and writer. Most of the cast have occupied several production roles. The Craving is after all part William Castle's legacy.

My copy is part of a five-disc package that leads off with Machine Head as the big inducement to buy. The entire package set me back $2 Australian. (DVDs are going the way of the dinosaur in Australia courtesy of streaming services.) The quality of the disc is quite acceptable whilst acknowledging the earlier mobile phone comment. It has clearish definition and the sound is consistently audible.

Is it a good film? Well, yes. It's no Let the Right One In, which also came out in 2008, but it is an OK monster flick. It probably won't change your life but you shouldn't regret investing 100 or so minutes in it if you are an aficionado of the genre.

Not as bad as I thought either... it was worse.

[poolandrews · 3/10 · 17 December 2009]

The Craving starts as five teenage friends drive through the isolated unforgiving desert on their way to some party or something, they ask a gas station clerk about a shortcut & don't get much of an answer but decide to take it anyway which just takes them deeper & deeper into the desert & they soon become hopelessly lost without even a road to guide them back from where they came. With miles of desert that looks exactly the same all around them the friends are relieved to see an old wooden shack in the distance & drive to it in the hope of some help. However once there a crazy old man named Larry (musician, co-editor & co-producer Curtis Krick) shoots their van up & they become stranded there, in a struggle with Larry he is shot dead & to make matters worse his van doesn't start so they are really stuck. Then when nighttime comes things get even worse as some sort of reptilian creature that preys on flesh attacks them...

Co-edited, co-produced & directed by Sean Dillon this is a lacklustre & throughly routine 'Creature Feature' that is stuffed with clichés & little in the way of monster action. The script is very unbalanced here with almost three distinct acts, the first half of the film is all about these typical horror film cliché teenage character's getting stuck in the middle of nowhere (their mobile phones don't work as per usual), the next quarter has them standing around arguing about whose fault it is as tensions rise between them (you can just tick the clichés off as we go) before the final quarter in which a barely seen monster runs around outside a lot & a throughly, throughly predictable twist ending kicks in (you didn't actually think the Sheriff/Deputy/whoever was there 'in the middle of nowhere' by coincidence did you?) where the monster plays second fiddle all the time & is actually more or less relegated to a subplot as the moral messages about the dangers of drug addiction start to flow. The pacing is bad with long, long stretches of basically nothing happening & an overlong 100 odd minute running time, the dialogue is poor (one guy says 'we're safe in the daylight' to which his bird says 'how do know?' which is a reasonable question & then he says 'I don't' & I was like sat there thinking 'so why did you say it then?') & the character's are all cardboard cutouts you never care about or connect with. There's a mildly interesting subplot about the monster giving off addictive toxins that are obviously a parallel to drug usage but it never really comes to anything & anytime the script goes for depth like the feelings of guilt yet at the same time power after having shot & killed someone are badly handled & forgotten about by the end.

The entire thing is set in a rather dry looking desert & has a repetitive look to it with it bleached out colours, for instance many times the sky is not blue but pure white & the contrast just looks ugly. There's one moment in which a camera zooms out from a guy climbing a mountain & the blockiness & grain is terrible, how cheap were the cameras that they used here because my one I own at home could have produced a better & clearer zoom. There's not much gore either, there's a bit of blood splatter, a man is seen ripped in half (why does this monster kill people anyway if it doesn't eat them?), a woman is seen ripped in half with her guts hanging down, someone cuts someone else's stomach with a knife & there's a fairly gory shot as we see a guy's head who has had his face ripped-off & his skull is visible. The monster is never seen in it's entirety but you can tell from the quick glimpse that it's just a guy in a rubber suit. There's zero suspense or tension as the attacks are all quick editing in very dark conditions & it just looks a bit of a mess really.

I would imagine this was a low budget effort shot in a single location with only six or seven cast members & people from the production team doubling up & doing several jobs as evidenced in the credits. Apparently shot in somewhere called the Desert Center in California. The acting is OK for this type of thing but no-ones going to win any awards.

The Craving is a monster film with barely any monster action & a dull clichéd plot that takes ages to get to the point & even then it wasn't worth the wait. Not something I would ever want to see again or something I could ever recommend in good faith, I am sure whoever made this put lots of effort into it but that doesn't make it any good & doesn't mean I want to spend 100 minutes watching it.

Neat creature feature

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 14 July 2011]

A group of college students find themselves stranded in the desert while embarking on a cross country road trip to the Burning Man Festival. Come nightfall a vicious predatory monster comes out searching for a meal. Director Sean Dillon, working from a tight and compelling script by Curtis Krick, relates the gripping story at a steady pace, builds a substantial amount of suspense, makes excellent use of the arid and remote harsh location, and adroitly creates and sustains a grimly serious tone that becomes more increasingly bleak and hopeless as the narrative unfolds towards a surprising downbeat conclusion. Moreover, Dillon further spices things up with a few bits of ghastly gore, a nice smattering of bare female skin, and even a dab of sizzling soft-core sex. The startling moments of bloody'n'brutal violence pack a pretty potent punch. The sound acting from the able non-star cast rates as another major asset, with praiseworthy contributions by Grayson Berry as the decent, likable Brian, Jesse C. Boyd as easygoing druggie Scotty, Anselm Clinard as the surly, hot-tempered Troy, Wallis Herst as the sassy Diane, Lesley Paterson as the gutsy, sensible Jeannie, and Jason Kehler as a folksy ranger. Krick's crisp widescreen cinematography gives the picture a pleasing polished look while his shuddery score hits the shivery spot. A worthwhile low-budget indie fright film.

Professionally-made micro-budget horror in the desert

[Wuchakk · 7/10 · 21 August 2016]

Released in 2008 and directed by Sean Dillon, "The Craving" is a low-budget horror flick about five youths who get stuck in the desert after a crazy hermit disables their van with a shotgun. The hermit is the least of their problems, however, as an unknown creature of the night preys upon them.

I've been watching a lot of barely-a-budget independent horror flicks lately, many with the identical plot as this one (e.g. "Delirium" & "Feeding Grounds"), and "The Craving" is noticeably professional by comparison. Despite a couple cases of dubious photography, the filmmaking is adept enough to pass for a theatrical release, at least a drive-in release—the cinematography, cast, acting, script, editing, gore effects, creature effects, etc. No-budget horror flicks usually have sub-par women and actors in general, but the first act showcases Lesley Paterson as Jeannie and she's Prime A all the way (I'm not referring to the dark-haired girl, Diane, who has a top-nude sequence right out of the gate and who's decidedly average by comparison).

The low-ratings for "The Craving" are inexplicable because it delivers the goods for what it is in all the requisite areas noted above.

The movie runs 99 minutes and was shot in Desert Center, California.

GRADE: B

Great low budget entertainment

[davidfio-78803 · 10/10 · 3 November 2018]

This movie was part of the Highway to Hell 6 horror movie DVD. Honesty it was by far the best of the 6 and made the DVD worth it. The acting is good, directing and the story is entertaining. If you like low budget horror you will love this one.

A Road Trip To Hell

[loveablejohn-46629 · 7/10 · 17 March 2019]

This movie reminded me of the horror movies of the 1970s and 1980s. It had everything a horror movie should have with outstanding special effects and excellent cinematography plus the soundtrack was superb. There was even some nudity and the script was for the most part good but I didn't like the way the movie ended.