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CRUCIFIED (2019)

Directed by Claudio Lattanzi.
Written by Claudio Lattanzi, Antonio Tentori.
Starring Cinzia Monreale, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Marina Loi, Veronica Urban, Tania Orlandi, Lorenzo Lepori
Find out more about this film here!

The world has gone to shit due to an Apocalyptic plague of unknown origins and most people who haven’t died, have gone into hiding. A force of exterminators scour the buildings and streets for survivors and when they find them, they crucify them and kill them. A small group of survivors take refuge in an abandoned building, but the threat of the exterminators looms ever closer.

CRUCIFIED is a film that hinges on the final reveal, which I won’t spoil here. Films like that have to rely on an interesting story that raises a bunch of questions worth sticking around for that reveal. The main problem with CRUCIFIED is that it is an extremely low budget film. Most of the expansive shots of decimated buildings and streets are done in CG layered over real abandoned warehouses and alleyways. But the bulk of the film is set inside an abandoned warehouse with characters who have holed themselves up to survive. Now, if the conversations were interesting and unique, that would be fine. But it’s not. It’s your typical survivor style arguments heard over and over again on THE WALKING DEAD. Should we stay? Should we go? Should we trust the new guy? I don’t trust the new guy. How are we going to rebuild if we don’t have trust? When is this going to end? It’s just not enough meat on the sandwich to satisfy until the big reveal, so it ends up feeling like a fluffy waste of time.

The reveal is ok and I think, had this been a short film, it might have worked marvelously. While a lot of the actions of the previous hour of this hour and ten minute movie kind of betray the reveal, I think it was a decent twist. I also want to commend director Claudio Lattanzi for being able to cobble together a movie about a world-spanning, Apocalyptic plague while simply filming inside of an abandoned warehouse. That’s some pull yourself up by your bootstraps indie filmmaking right there and I respect that. Unfortunately, the final result doesn’t live up to its ambition. CRUCIFIED incorporates CG with real world urban decay well and some of the scenes are decently shot, but I feel this was a scant story that proved to be too big for the aspirations of the director.

Check out the trailer here!!