In this bleak but in the very end a hopeful low-budget sci-fi production, a writer is kidnapped by the company named Motorkore. Motorkore transforms ordinary people into crash test dummies, although they are the living ones. Writer is given a new name, 171096 and he will suffer violent acts (just imagine what human crash test dummy has to do!) but in the end, he starts to fight back with the help of veteran crash test dummy. Get ready to burn!

At first, Crash Test was actually a 16mm short film that director Sam Voutas made in 1999. After few film festivals (notably Official selection of Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto) Voutas planned to make it feature film. And here it is : black & white, low-budget sci-fi thriller with lots of originality. Somewhat disturbing but impressive script is one of the best ones in a while, at least in this genre. It has its flaws and holes, but solely the idea of human crash test dummy creates extraordinary atmosphere.

The use of black & white gives an extra feel to the movie, especially when the look of digital video gets better with it. Director/actor/etc. Sam Voutas uses stylish camera angles and takes an advantage of desolate Australian nature. Although you can tell on many scenes that this movie is made without big bucks, it really doesn't get to bother - thanks to actors who give - at least - good performances, namely director Voutas as Sala/171096 and Melanie Ansley who also produced the Crash Test.

The beginning and the very end are the strongest parts in Crash Test, while in the middle of the film the tempo goes down and the pace of rhythm suffers because of it. This makes some scenes slightly dull in the latter part of the movie, but that's a minor letdown in this piece of inspired and independent movie making. Crash Test has still more balls and originality than most of the modern Hollywood sci-fi wannabe's. Sam Voutas and his mates at Scopofile are ones to watch out.