The Crush

With plot holes so large you could drive a HumVee through them, this debut film from director Shapiro is little more than a lousy hybrid, one part Fatal Attraction to two parts Lolita, only this time Humbert Humbert writes for trendy Pique! magazine and lives in Seattle (but doesn't everybody these days?). Read full review

As an unashamed B-movie, The Crush does what it says on the tin and entertains for an hour and a half. Except you feel kind of cheated by the supposed climax, with the build up proving more disturbing. Silverstone is convincingly equal parts Lolita and Norman Bates. Read full review

Viewed as anything but fodder for scares, The Crush is silly business. Its villainess is much less credible than Barrymore's, while its landscaping and decor manifest a lot more thought than its psychology. Nonetheless, the picture manages to sustain an effectively creepy atmosphere for most of its 80-odd minutes, making it tolerable for moviegoers content with nothing more. [8 Apr 1993, p.E10]

Unfortunately, Shapiro borrows from too many movies (his climax vaguely recalls "Stranger on a Train") to let his story's potential shine through, and so "The Crush" remains an exercise in diminishing returns. [3 Apr 1993, p.C5]

A harmless sex-teaser, from a first-time writer/director, which develops into a confused, cynical and third-rate exploitationer. Read full review

Yet another variation on the woman-from-hell subgenre, THE CRUSH fails to come up with many new twists beyond casting a teenager as its villain. Dancing around its own salacious possibilities, the movie is only briefly offensive and rarely surprising. Read full review

In fact, with its basic shortage of gore and only brief glimpses of nudity, it’s hard to imagine what in the film prompted an R rating, unless it stands for “ridiculous.” Read full review