I’ve talked about Sam Raimi before with my reviews of his Evil Dead trilogy, classics in their own right. While continuing to direct, Raimi and his producing partner, Rob Tapert, started the production company Ghost House Pictures in 2002. The company started producing mid-level budget horror films such as The Grudge, 30 Days Of Night, and Don’t Breathe. Around the same time, French filmmaker Alexandre Aja entered the scene in the horror film industry with 2003’s High Tension. He soon moved on to doing 2006’s The Hills Have Eyes, a remake of the Wes Craven original from 1976. Though he didn’t direct the sequel, he directed 2008’s Mirrors and 2010’s Piranha 3D, a remake of the 1978 original. Similar to Hills, Aja didn’t direct the sequel, but instead directed 2013’s Horns and 2016’s 9th Life of Louis Drax. Now, he and Ghost House have teamed up for 2019’s Crawl.
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Haley Keller (Kaya Scodelario) is an aspiring swimmer at University of Florida struggling to succeed despite her best efforts. After a recent meet, she hears news of a Category 5 hurricane about to make its way to Florida. She gets a call from her sister Beth (Moryfydd Clark) that their estranged father is not returning their calls. Concerned about his health, Haley goes against the multiple warnings and goes further towards the hurricane to find her father. She finds her father (Barry Pepper) in their old house, but he’s trapped in the basement with a huge scar. Turns out the storm caused several large alligators to get loose, and they’ve taken up residence in the Keller’s house. With her father badly injured, Haley has to find a way to escape while surviving against the onslaught of alligators. Will they survive, or will the gators leave with full stomachs?
On the surface, Crawl is nothing that hasn’t already been done before: people trapped somewhere with something attacking them. Hell, plenty of other movies have centered around killer alligators, such as Eaten Alive, Lake Placid, Alligator, and Primeval. However, what Crawl lacks in originality, it more than makes up for in its execution as everything in here works. First off, Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper are excellent as the two leads, Kaya especially giving it her all here. Though Pepper is immobile for most of it, he still has moments to shine and has great chemistry with Kaya. You really feel for these two, not just because of their situation, but because of the character development they’re given. It’s pretty standard stuff, i.e. family being separated, main character doubting their abilities, etc., but it’s very well done. It certainly helps that the two really elevate the material.
Alexandre Aja’s direction is top notch, and he really knows how to establish suspense and tension all throughout. There were so many moments where I was genuinely nervous about what would happen and if the characters would survive. As expected, the alligators are mostly CGI, but it’s done convincingly enough and probably safer than using real alligators. Admittedly, this might be more of a nitpick, but there are some moments that make the characters seemingly invincible. Without spoiling anything, there are moments where Haley is bitten on the leg and arm by alligators, but she’s fine. Of course, she does have some scratches and limps, but an alligator biting down on you would do more damage. Still, Crawl is so well-done and entertaining that moments like that are forgivable and don’t ruin the overall quality. Overall, Crawl is a fun animal attack film with great acting, directing, and thrills.
