Crush
2023 · 14m · USA
Directed by Christian Matthew Schultz
Tones: darkly comic, melancholic, tense
A woman consumed by obsessive infatuation hides under the bed of her love interest and finds herself trapped there, unable to escape either the physical space or her own delusions.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Female stalker trapped under a bed for the runtime, plot advancing via off-screen sound — that's a real formal idea and the gender flip has bite. Yes.
Stalker narrative shot almost entirely from under a bed, advancing through off-screen sound — the constraint is bold and Bressonian in its way, though the gender-flip framing as gimmick risks reducing a real subject. Formally daring.
Fourteen minutes shot almost entirely from under a bed, advancing plot through off-screen sound design — that's a confined-space gambit that requires absolutely surgical sound work to function. Gender-flipping the stalker narrative is a sharp screenplay choice; only 807 views suggests it didn't break out wide.
Reviews
A story of unhealthy obsession verging on self-destruction, this film about a lovelorn stalker explores how to wring maximum tension from minimal means.