Crawl is a 2019 American disaster horror film directed by Alexandre Aja, starring Kaya Scodelario (as Haley) and Barry Pepper (as Haley’s father Dave). Crawl (2019) movie review
The movie is about this woman who gets stuck in a basement of a house during a hurricane while alligators are circling them. Most of the movie takes place in a basement where Haley and Dave use different tactics to outsmart the alligators (banging on pipes, hiding in places pipes are passing through and bunch of other stuff. It becomes harder and harder as the basement starts to flood and they are found in an environment where alligators thrive in.
A lot of the time is spent crawling around and trying not to be too loud unintentionally which can lead to some tense moments. However, those tense moments are usually concluded with a loud jump scare which can be good and bad, depending on your stand on it. This follows up with a surprising amount of decent gore and a lot of it being very graphic. The scene with the leg was hard for even a big horror fan such as myself to watch. After the violence starts, it rarely stops.
Movie introduces some extra characters that are just there to beef up the body count. Our main characters also get hurt quite a lot. I had some issues with characters walking and acting as if a big injury would only result in few screams. You should not be able to walk if your leg looks like somebody cut through it with a saw.
The movie utilized the one location setting really well. The characters had to find creative ways to move around and explore their escape options without being seen/heard. Like mentioned, this led to some tense moments throughout the movie. The rusty pipes and garbage thrown around serve both as a help as well as a hindrance to the characters’ plan to escape. Not going to say all of the actions are either realistic or smart, but the characters took a lot of risks, even if some outcomes came to fruition due to blind luck or coincidence. I don’t mind this as it helps the movie stand out by having good characters with decent development as well as characters who are determined to survive even when all odds are against them.
The alligators are violent and look really good in most of the scenes. In some scenes they looked a little too twitchy where CG was obvious but in most scenes they are great. You get rid of one and another comes out of nowhere which is nice to keep the tension going. Still, the savagery of these beasts is felt throughout the movie. Their presence is always felt, even when a loud hurricane overlaps all other things, especially cries for help.
Overall the movie was great. The characters are likable and have a good father daughter dynamic going on. They are smart and use different ways to outsmart the alligators. The violence can be quite bloody and the alligators have a constant screen presence. Movie is about 90 min long and it never felt like it was dragging. There was always something to keep us interested in the story. Grab a beer and enjoy some great creature feature fun.
P.S There was a scene where the main character says “Apex predator all day” out of nowhere. Not sure if it was a reference to something, but I couldn’t stop laughing. So random and unnecessary.
Thanks for reading my Crawl (2019) movie review
