Crackhouse

Long before the visceral graphic actions of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas’s hoodlum gangs, and the hardboiled hyper-kinetic artistry of Requiem For A Dream’s take on drug addiction, there existed a film that boldly covered the same subject matter with less than spectacular (although well intentioned) results. Welcome to Crack House, a film completely dull with its simplistic story, and amateur night acting, but a piece of work that intriguingly still has something to say on small levels.

It’s no surprise that the film is R-rated because of its content, but strangely enough it seems almost tame when compared to today’s material. The violence is not overly excessive and graphic, and the scenes that could be considered unnerving (like the abuse suffered by the women from drug dealers) don’t go over the top with the exploitation. In fact the editing cleverly cuts away before things go too far. If any good comes from the film, it’s the fact that it easily shows how senseless gang life is, and how entrapping drug addiction can be. The consequences of both are displayed quite poignantly in the story.

Centrally, the film revolves around a former gangbanger, who winds up in jail when he returns to the fold to take revenge for the death of his cousin. Unknowingly, this sends his girlfriend in a downward spiral of drugs and abuse during his incarceration. In order to save her, he must participate in a sting operation with the cops who arrested him. It’s almost uncanny how much similarity this film has with Requiem, especially when the white girlfriend falls under the black drug dealer’s influence just to stay high. The film has mostly no one recognizable on screen, with the exception of football star Jim Brown as the primary drug lord, and Shaft’s Richard Roundtree as a detective trying to clean up the streets.

The DVD itself is bare bones. The theatrical trailer that is provided with the film isn’t that attractive, it’s actually quite vague with the whole storyline of the movie. The sound isn’t even all that spectacular (and the brutalizing music score doesn’t help the ears either). Crack House is an avoidable DVD, and as a film altogether. Although it has moments of substance and meaning, it has even more of useless scenes, story, and performances.