Aja returns to maritime creature horror with Crawl, a somewhat minimalist but effective horror movie.
Haley is a competitive swimmer in Florida. After training she gets a call from her sister asking her to look after their dad who lives in the area now that a strong hurricane is approaching. There are road closures and evacuations but Haley goes into the direction of the storm anyway. First to the dad's apartment where she finds his dog but no one else. Then she drives to their old family house. The dad's car is there but he's nowhere to be found. The dog also indicates he is there so Haley has to look everywhere, eventually making it into the...and I'm not sure what this is supposed to be... something in between a cellar and a crawlspace. Too tall to be a crawlspace and to short to be a cellar. In any case, it's starting to flood, but Haley doesn't really have to crawl, ducking is enough. There she runs into an alligator. Eventually she finds her dad unconscious and with a large shoulder wound. She tries to yank her dad to safety but has to make it back. The alligator won't let her. So for now they have to stay there in this area where they can crawl but alligators can't (?).
She tries to alert 3 thieves out in a gas station in front of the house with her lamp. But the alligators have plans on their own for these three. The dad wakes up and tries to help Haley find a way out. The stairs are not an option because there isn't just one alligator, but two now, and the water keeps raising. There is a drain pipe from the swamps (into their crawlspace?) but that's where the alligators came from. Their only option is a trapdoor somewhere that leads upstairs. Haley manages to find it but there's stuff on top of the door so it won't open.
There's no other option than the drain pipe then and the three make it into their house after first trying to get into the car (?) and then into some tiny boat and after sustaining plenty of injuries. By now the levees break and as soon as the make it into the house so does everything else--water, trees, alligators. Now they have to make it to the roof. In the meantime some rescue crew arrives but they too have to deal with the gators. The only thing left to do is to try and make it to the roof.
Crawl is as short movie, it's got likeable and believable characters in also a believable relationship who have to overcome these life-threatening challenges. Production all around is very good, from the creature effects to the weather, to the sound production. The movie is creepy and has a couple of good scares as well. Scodelario and Pepper offer solid performances. There's not much to complain really. Of course things stretch belief, and it would have been nice to have some more characters, more violence, more gore, some nudity, and some sunshine at the beginning and end. We do learn something about this family's past but in spite of that, the relationship between the father and daughter is well-portrayed and not too dysfunctional. Crawl just works in every aspect and is strong horror movie.
Haley is a competitive swimmer in Florida. After training she gets a call from her sister asking her to look after their dad who lives in the area now that a strong hurricane is approaching. There are road closures and evacuations but Haley goes into the direction of the storm anyway. First to the dad's apartment where she finds his dog but no one else. Then she drives to their old family house. The dad's car is there but he's nowhere to be found. The dog also indicates he is there so Haley has to look everywhere, eventually making it into the...and I'm not sure what this is supposed to be... something in between a cellar and a crawlspace. Too tall to be a crawlspace and to short to be a cellar. In any case, it's starting to flood, but Haley doesn't really have to crawl, ducking is enough. There she runs into an alligator. Eventually she finds her dad unconscious and with a large shoulder wound. She tries to yank her dad to safety but has to make it back. The alligator won't let her. So for now they have to stay there in this area where they can crawl but alligators can't (?).
She tries to alert 3 thieves out in a gas station in front of the house with her lamp. But the alligators have plans on their own for these three. The dad wakes up and tries to help Haley find a way out. The stairs are not an option because there isn't just one alligator, but two now, and the water keeps raising. There is a drain pipe from the swamps (into their crawlspace?) but that's where the alligators came from. Their only option is a trapdoor somewhere that leads upstairs. Haley manages to find it but there's stuff on top of the door so it won't open.
There's no other option than the drain pipe then and the three make it into their house after first trying to get into the car (?) and then into some tiny boat and after sustaining plenty of injuries. By now the levees break and as soon as the make it into the house so does everything else--water, trees, alligators. Now they have to make it to the roof. In the meantime some rescue crew arrives but they too have to deal with the gators. The only thing left to do is to try and make it to the roof.
Crawl is as short movie, it's got likeable and believable characters in also a believable relationship who have to overcome these life-threatening challenges. Production all around is very good, from the creature effects to the weather, to the sound production. The movie is creepy and has a couple of good scares as well. Scodelario and Pepper offer solid performances. There's not much to complain really. Of course things stretch belief, and it would have been nice to have some more characters, more violence, more gore, some nudity, and some sunshine at the beginning and end. We do learn something about this family's past but in spite of that, the relationship between the father and daughter is well-portrayed and not too dysfunctional. Crawl just works in every aspect and is strong horror movie.