In the tradition of other monster movies such as The Meg, Piranha 3D, Lake Placid, and Anaconda, where the beasts of nature wreak havoc on the community, comes Alexandre Aja’s (High Tension, The Hills Have Eyes) Crawl. This movie is a lot of fun. And by this, by no means am I suggesting it is perfect. It is far from perfect. However, it is a good escape film built around horror.

The film’s premise isn’t complicated. Haley (Kaya Scodelario – Moon, The Maze Runner) is a competitive swimmer and a college student at the University of Florida. She has an older sister who lives in Boston. She has a mother who is somewhere. And she has a recently divorced father named Dave (Barry Pepper – *61, The Green Mile), who lives south of Gainsville. A hurricane is moving into the area, causing people to evacuate.

Beth and Haley are worried about their father as they haven’t reached him in a couple of days, nor has he responded to text messages. Haley bypasses the local police, who are telling her she can’t continue driving south (it doesn’t hurt that her sister once dated one of the officers), and she arrives at her family home…one that Dave is prepping to sell. The family’s dog helps Haley find her father in the crawl space below the house. The whole area has already started accumulating water from the hurricane. When Haley finds her father, he is unconscious but breathing. He also has a big scar on his chest. She attempts to drag him to safety by getting him to the staircase back to the first floor. This is when we meet our predator. The city has been infested with alligators through a storm drain, including one camped out in the crawl space with Haley and Dave.

There isn’t much more that needs to be said about the plot. This is a horror movie, and it will involve the alligators trying to kill the humans. Haley and Dave seem trapped by their situation but know they must act quickly as the water rises. At one point, Dave tells us they have an hour before the entire crawl space is filled with water. Interestingly, this movie isn’t shot in real-time, but it almost feels like it is…or at least it could be. In particular, Scodelario and Pepper both do an excellent job of being the only characters on-screen for extended periods. And the alligators were downright creepy. I didn’t look at my phone to see the size of an alligator, but these seemed bigger than I would have thought. And for them, just lurking in shadows, ready to strike whenever their prey makes any movement, felt terrifying.

As mentioned, Crawl isn’t perfect, and there were plenty of inconsistencies, but it’s one of those movies where you get swarmed by what’s happening and allow yourself to forget. For example, Haley and Dave suffer multiple alligator bites but can play it off moments later as if nothing happened. Despite having a big gash on her leg, Haley can use her college swimming skills to outswim alligators. Dave has his leg broken yet still doesn’t have much trouble carrying his dog an hour later. When the water traps Haley and Dave with less than an hour before they are completely submerged, they still make time to have a conversation about what’s going on in their lives. We have cheese and inconsistencies, but this is not a movie that will be nominated for any awards. Crawl is a good old-fashioned monster movie designed to get you to squirm and even jump in your seat. And by doing this, Crawl is successful.

Plot 8/10
Character Development 7/10
Character Chemistry 7/10
Acting 7/10
Screenplay8/10
Directing 7/10
Cinematography 9/10
Sound 8/10
Hook and Reel 10/10
Universal Relevance 5/10
76%

C+

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