Crushed (2025)

“Excellent, But Not For The Faint-Hearted”

After a successful international festival run last year, the latest feature from writer-director Simon Rumley (CROWHURST, FASHIONISTA, JOHNNY FRANK GARRETT’S LAST WORD and more) is getting a digital release through Grimmvision.

Daniel (Steve Oram) is a priest living in Bangkok with his wife May (Nattapohn Rawddon) and their ten year old daughter Olivia (Margaux Dietrich). One day Olivia goes to stay with a friend. The friend’s older teenaged brother shows them both an example of a ‘Crushing’ video, in which animals meet their ends beneath the boot heels of women in stockings. Don’t worry, you don’t actually get to see the kitten’s demise.

Needless to say the little girl is traumatised. The next day her own pet kitten goes missing and she wanders the streets looking for it until her parents pick her up. She then follows a boy (who has bought some small pets) to a dubious-looking house and sure enough she ends up getting abducted, with the plan being to sell her to a sex tourist.

Meanwhile Daniel and his wife are beside themselves looking for Olivia. Daniel in particular believes God will help them. However when the man who did take her is caught Daniel then finds it difficult to practice what he preaches and forgive his daughter's abductor.

CRUSHED is gruelling, serious material and that warning up the top there should not be taken lightly. That said, if you’re made of sufficiently stern stuff the film is excellent. The main plot-line is suspenseful and disturbing while the themes it addresses of what it is like to be a Christian and thus consider yourself tested by God and then to completely fail that test is something for plenty of post-movie discussion. Rumley’s direction makes clever use of a novel split screen technique and even cleverer use of a number of hymns, some played without the words but if you know them you’ll appreciate even more what a bitterly cynical film this is. Highly recommended, IF you can take it. Here’s the trailer:

Simon Rumley’s CRUSHED is out on Digital from Grimmvision on Monday 5th October 2026