Written by Robert Scucci | Published
The beauty of Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi produced films is that you always know where you are getting into. You find strange characters thrown into strange situations, and you have to rely on their hand to carry you through whatever mayhem the screen throws at you. More often than not, out of this time, like 1991 Crazy: A Love Storythey are very low budget, low brow, and high concept, and you just have to roll with it.
Written and directed by Josh Becker, and starring Ted Raimi and Deborah Foreman, Crazy: A Love Story focuses on agoraphobics, giant spider monsters, girls’ phone numbers, and romance gone wrong. Sitting inside a tarp-wrapped Los Angeles apartment, we get a glimpse of how far one man’s mind can wander when he needs companionship the most, leading to a romantic exchange that’s awkward to say the least.
Dangers Awaiting Outside
Crazy: A Love Storydespite its 87-minute running time, it takes a while to get going. We’re first introduced to Hank (Ted Raimi), a man who hasn’t left his house in over six months. His neighbors have never seen him, and the postman who passes by every day is upset because he never comes down to collect his letters. The interior of Hank’s apartment looks about as you would expect. Her door has multiple locks, and her walls are wrapped in foil.
While we don’t know the exact reason why Hank is so lonely, it’s established early on that he has nightmares about spiders crawling around his brain, and a masked doctor (portrayed by Bruce Campbell) chasing him with ridiculously large needles filled with a mysterious liquid.
Meanwhile, across town, Nancy (Deborah Foreman) faces her own obstacles. She’s dumped by her boyfriend Ray (also Bruce Campbell) and kicked out of the hotel she’s staying at after he steals her money on his way out, leaving her unable to pay for the room. While roaming the streets, he is attacked by a gang of criminals and calls for shelter through a nearby pay phone at the same time that Hank makes a sex emergency call.
By coincidence, or maybe something is playing up, the pay phone rings when Hank dials, and Nancy picks it up. He invites her to his house because he needs company. So far, he’s been fooling rappers who scratch beats on his turntable using his face, and intruders who try to break down his front door with a chainsaw.
When Nancy takes Hank up on his offer, they finally sit down and talk about their problems, both afraid of the horrors, real and imagined, that await them outside.
One Problem Stands Out
It goes without saying that any fan of Bruce Campbell and the consistent filmmaking style of the Raimi brothers will enjoy the creature design and schlocky special effects Crazy: A Love Story he must give. There’s always charm to be found if you know what you’re signing up for, and this film is no exception.
Narratively, however, the film falls apart for one specific reason. It takes about 40 minutes for our two characters to cross paths, which means they have little time to build trust, become friends, and act believably. Given how inflexible Hank is at the beginning of the film, it’s impossible for someone like Nancy to not only walk into his house, but stay for more than five minutes given how awkward this setting is.
Then again, I don’t want movies like this Crazy: A Love Story with a strong screenplay that makes sense. I want movies like this because I want to watch someone come out on top while anyone pulled into their chaotic life by accident tries to make sense of it all. If that’s what you’re looking for, you’ll have a great time watching Hank finally suit up in his tin armor and hit the streets of Los Angeles, where he sees giant spiders, meets gang members who torture Nancy, and completely loses his mind in the process.
All the elements of a crazy, low-budget production from Raimi and Campbell are in place, and director-writer Josh Becker couldn’t have asked for a better team to help realize his vision, as bootleg as it may be. What you get is a fun, fast-paced journey into the mind of an unstable man looking for a partner in his increasingly closed life, and it works shockingly well within that framework.
Witnessing all the low-budget thrills, that’s genre bending Crazy: A Love Story which you have to offer, you can stream the title for free on Tubi as of this writing.
