Crawl (2019)
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Crawl Movie Review
Crawl is a 2019 horror film directed by Alexandre Aja and starring Kaya Scodelario. It’s a silly, but solid and perfectly competent creature feature.
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“We can defeat these pea-brained lizard shits“
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A daughter and father along with their dog are hunted by alligators after becoming trapped in their home during a serious hurricane. This is one of those movies that are just meant for fun, and sure enough, it’s hugely entertaining. I particularly loved its house setting as that was different for the alligator flick, and a flooded house surely presented a lot of potential for some interesting horror scenarios, such as that impossible, but incredibly memorable shower tub sequence.
My main gripe with this flick is that it’s incredibly unrealistic and so silly that it was laughable in a couple of scenes here and there. That’s why I overall found ‘The Shallows’ a better flick, but this one is mostly perfectly solid and satisfactory for what it could be.
Kaya Scodelario is very strong as Haley. She is one of those impossibly agile and competent horror heroines who always manage to survive. But that was fun to watch for sure as those scenes were silly, but kickass. Her performance is actually pretty good which I did not expect from her, and the character is solidly developed.
I liked her relationship with her father. That was wonderful. And their mentor/parent-child dynamic was interesting. Whenever they had shared moments, the film reached its biggest heights. I wanted more of those moments, and the film needed more characters in it given that it felt a bit hollow with just two.
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Crawl is very well made in terms of action sequences, cinematography and sound. The alligators did behave at times unrealistically, but for the most part not all that bad and not as stupidly overpowered as in many other flicks in the same vein.
The dialogue is okay, the film looks good and it utilized on its premise and especially setting very well. I personally wanted bigger scares as the film isn’t all that scary ever. Ultimately, it’s fun, but disposable popcorn entertainment.
Crawl is a perfectly solid flick for what it is, which is a hugely entertaining, but silly creature feature. Some moments were ridiculous, but there is no denying that the film is entertaining in those scenes with the shower tub moment being the best example. Kaya Scodelario is pretty good in the main role and the father-daughter dynamic is strong. The setting is very well utilized for action, but the movie needed to have been scarier overall.
