Crawl (2019) -- a review

Kaya Scodelario stars in Crawl as Haley, a college swimmer who’s struggling to maintain her scholarship at a Florida school when she realizes that she had bigger problems. After a swim meet, Haley receives a call from her sister, who hasn’t heard from their father in a while. There’s a major hurricane bearing down on Florida, and the fact that Haley’s father has gone silent--not answering calls or texts--is a bad sign. Despite the fact that she and her dad are not on speaking terms, Haley agrees to make the two hour drive to check in on him.

Taking her four-wheel drive vehicle off road to avoid the safety roadblocks set up by the authorities, Haley drives ever closer to the outer fringes of the hurricane. The winds pick up, the rain falls horizontally, and the old neighborhood of her childhood house is completely abandoned--with the exception of Haley’s dad (Barry Pepper), who’s trapped in the basement of his house under some debris. But as the basement begins to flood from the hurricane, Haley also finds herself dealing with a group of alligators on top of the storm.

Directed by Alexandre Aja, who also directed the marvelously intense High Tension, and the fun 2010 remake of Piranha, Crawl (not to be confused with a similarly-named Australian thriller) is an enjoyably nerve-wracking, edge-of-your-seat horror movie in the same vein as Greg McLean’s Rogue. By wisely making Haley a champion swimmer, Aja gives us a perfect heroine to square off against the alligators--a woman who’s just as nimble and quick in the rapidly rising waters as the alligators. Crawl is a lean, mean 90 minutes of furious tension that just keeps building the moment Haley sets out to find her dad. The sleek story effortlessly propels itself forward, with nary a wasted moment, much like an alligator in the water.

There are some over-the-top encounters with Haley and these predators, but the thoughtful script tempers any silliness with a smart set up and careful foreshadowing. Kaya Scodelario is perfectly cast here; she easily carries the film on her slender shoulders, and through her sturdy acting provides us with a sympathetic character whom we root for from the very first frame. The alligators--which look like a combination of live effects and CGI--are so well done that you only think of them as a real, live threat to Haley. Crawl is anything but a crawl; it’s a fun, fast-paced terror ride through the eye of a hurricane while dodging alligators. Highly recommended. --SF

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