Crawl

  Happy Birthday (on Saturday) to me! Most years on my birthday I like to go to a movie if there’s something interesting playing (2020 being an obvious exception). In 2019 I treated myself to a matinee of Crawl, which had been released just five days before. Being a Wednesday afternoon I had the entire theater to myself and it was glorious.

Crawl was written by Michael and Shawn Rasmussen (The Inhabitants) and was directed by Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes (2006)). Crawl was made on a budget of $13.5 million, made $12,005,210 upon opening, and went on to make a whopping $91,542,097 worldwide. It was released on July 12th, 2019 (happy two year anniversary Crawl!) and received positive reviews upon release.

Crawl follows Haley (Kaya Scodelario, Skins), an aspiring swimmer, and her father (Barry Pepper, The Green Mile) as they are trapped in the crawl space of their house during a Category 5 hurricane with two vicious alligators. 

Goddamn. What a logline. I’m a lover of monster movies, be they kaiju, made-up creatures, or just regular (and violent) animals, so I was sold on this film the moment I heard its premise and it delivers on what it promises. 

A good portion of the success of this film lies in the strength of Scodelario’s performance. She brings just the right amount of grit and empathy to the role to keep us rooting for her survival. Unfortunately, Pepper can’t quite match Scodelario’s performance so the scenes dealing with their troubled relationship don’t hit at the level they need to. Luckily, the film wisely keeps those scenes to a minimum. Aja knows why we’re here.

To that point, the gators. They look great! I was shocked to learn that, outside of a handful of shots utilizing practical effects, the gators are entirely CGI creations and they look awesome. In addition to the gators, Aja utilizes both the cramped crawl space and the increasing danger of the hurricane to up the tension throughout. Even in spots where they are safe from the gators, the ever-rising water level means that their sanctuary will run out sooner rather than later. Even the eye of the storm passing overhead presents its own unique dangers.

Crawl is great fun. The pacing is excellent (those gators show up at the 21-minute mark) and at 87 minutes it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Even when we get out of the crawl space, the film provides some exciting sequences in the upper levels of the house as the water rises.

Rating: 4.5 apex predators out of 5

Other Observations:

• Does the Dog Die? The film cleverly plays with our expectations. Not only does Sugar the dog survive the film, she’s never in any active danger.

• Harrison’s Favorite Scare: The tree branch that crashes through the window when Haley first enters the house. It’s surprising and it nicely illustrates the many dangers of the situation outside of the gators.

• There are characters in the film other than Haley and her father. They exist mostly to be eaten and they perform the task admirably. 

• Haley’s bathroom maneuver rocks. She really is a badass.

• During my research on this film, I learned that Aja is really hot. So that’s fun.

Next Week: We continue our countdown to Scream (2022) (aka Scream 5) with Scream 2!