Movie Review: Crawl (2019)
I don’t know what this movie’s marketing budget was, but I honestly wouldn’t have heard of it were it not for following Fangoria and Bloody Disgusting writers on Twitter.
And in a pleasant surprise, this movie stars Kaya Scodelario, from BBC’s Skins.
I really, really love this woman. I think she’s incredibly beautiful and talented, and it’s nice that American cinema has discovered her, even if they’re not always utilizing her best, like in the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
She’s wonderful here. She plays a college swimmer, Haley Keller, who goes to see that her father (Barry Pepper) is safe during a hurricane. He’s not, and then she isn’t, either, because they’re trapped in a cellar with an alligator, and then eventually alligators.
It’s a really fun creature feature that’s even more intense than I was expecting. This is somewhat of a check-your-brain-at-the-door movie, but that’s not to say it’s really stupid. It’s probably just as stupid as a movie about killer alligators stalking a couple of people needs to be.
From what I can tell, there are two directors named Alexandre Aja. One of them established himself in the New French Extremity movement with Haute Tension, and brought that style over to Hollywood with the remake of The Hills Have Eyes. The other is into some really campy shit, and directed Piranha 3D. This movie (possibly others; I haven’t seen all his movies) really combines both Ajas to some incredible effect.
There is definitely some campy stuff in this movie, with some minor characters showing up really just to die in incredibly fun ways.
But there is also legitimate tension throughout the movie, and some downright disturbing sequences. The only other person in the theater with me (hopefully this isn’t the case at most theaters, and is due to the fact that I saw it at 3:00 on a Monday afternoon) left during a scene where someone applies a tourniquet on a broken leg.
The movie’s violence isn’t so much disturbing when it happens, but it’s when we see survivors deal with their injuries, that truly got me. I’m also just not good with that kind of thing. It’s the one type of screen violence that I don’t take easily.
Anyways, Kaya Scodelario is really fantastic. It’s a demanding performance, and she’s really up for it. Barry Pepper isn’t as good, but I wouldn’t call him bad.
The movie does have some character stuff going on, as you might expect with a movie about father-daughter. It’s probably the weakest part of the movie, but I definitely understand why it’s there. I personally wouldn’t mind a movie that’s just 100 minutes of two people fighting for their lives with almost no character development, but movies like that don’t normally get seen.
And this movie should definitely be seen. It’s an intense watch; you will feel on edge for most of the movie. But that’s what you should be looking for in a movie like this. It’s a success.
When the alligator first showed up, I was a little disappointed by the CGI. I mean, it’s not like I was expecting them to have used a real alligator, but something about it just didn’t work for me. Later on in the movie, this was not an issue. I don’t know if maybe the creatures just looked better when there was more water around them, the effects genuinely got better, or if the tense filmmaking just really got me into the movie. I’m guessing it was the latter.
Rating: 7/10
