Pros: Special effects; length of the film Cons: Predictable; formulaic script and dialogue Crawl / “Predators”
Genre horror, disaster film
Directed by Alexander Azha
Starring: Kaya Scodelario (Hayley Keller), Barry Pepper (Dave Keller), Ross Anderson (Wayne Taylor), Anson Boone (Stan), George Somner (Marv), etc.
Студии Ghost House Pictures, Paramount Pictures
Year of release 2019
IMDb website
This time the authors decided to add some relevant eco-themes to the summer horror. The events of Crawl take place against the backdrop of a catastrophic hurricane that covered the coast of Florida. A natural disaster acts here as a motivating reason that led the heroine to visit the alligators, and as an insurmountable obstacle that cuts off the characters from the mainland and forces them to rely only on their own strength.
So, student Haley Keller (Kaya Scodelario), who has been seriously involved in swimming since childhood, goes in search of her father, who is not answering calls and probably did not have time to evacuate from the flood zone. Naturally, the father does not answer the phone for a reason, and as a result, Haley and Dave Keller (Barry Pepper) find themselves locked in the basement of their own house alone with a couple of hungry alligators who decided to settle here. Actually, most of the film will take place in this dirty, dark, but quite spacious room. The events of the second half of the picture will be transferred to the first and second floors of the house and to the streets around it, the hurricane cannot be stopped, the water rises and the reptiles have more operational space.
Like The Shallows with Blake Lively, Crawl is a very intimate film, limited by space and a tiny crew. All the actors except Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper are extras who don’t even have names, and all of them, of course, will be eaten by alligators. As for the leading actors, you could see Kaya Scodelario in Skins and the infamous trilogy The Maze Runner, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and Maze Runner: The Death Cure, I’m not at all sure that filming in these youth films was beneficial her career. Barry Pepper also cannot be called a very successful actor, although he received an Emmy Award and Gemini Awards for his role in The Kennedys, on the other hand, he also has a Golden Cranberry Award to his credit for the film Battlefield Earth.
One of Crawl’s main problems is its incredible predictability. If you have watched at least a couple of similar horror films, you will probably predict all the plot moves. Moreover, even the traditional jump scares for films of this genre can be predicted here, so Crawl is unlikely to succeed in scaring you. Coupled with incredibly meaningless and pretentious dialogue, and the characters in a dangerous situation discussing, of course, Hayley’s personal problems and successes in sports, Crawl is a rather painful spectacle. Thank God the film is only an hour and a half long, so you won’t have to suffer for long. However, even here it would be possible to condense a couple of episodes.
By and large, except for a couple of inventive episodes in the house shown in the trailer (the water is lava and a scene in the shower (not eroticism!)), there are no special discoveries in Crawl. The only things that make the picture stand out are the special effects, fairly realistic reptiles and the dog Luna, for whose fate you worry most. However, you know very well that nothing will happen to either the main character or the dog. Directors are not animals!
Honestly, the only reason to go to Crawl is to kill an hour and a half of time to wait for your train, important meeting, date, etc. On the other hand, having a smartphone in your hands, this time can be spent more usefully.
PS Pssssssss… Hollywood… I have only one word for you – Hippos! Cute body-positive killing machines can accelerate to the speed of a car, easily bite through a canoe and overturn a motorboat. Even crocodiles avoid these extremely nervous and vindictive creatures.
Hippos. Think about it.
Conclusion:
Another film about the confrontation between humans and aggressive predators. Nothing special
