Nothing says summer quite like a tropical storm in Florida and a bunch of angry alligators swimming around the flood lands. As dumb and predictable as that may sound, the entire Sharknado franchise was spawned and successful with that very simple approach. Crawl isn’t a particularly good movie but it’s fully self-aware and not pretentious about it either.
There is no need for any additional plot summary here. In a word, it’s just…Florida. If you enjoy B-style horror films then you’ve probably heard of Director Alexander Aja. This is just what he does. From the first film I saw of his, High Tension (2003), through the Hills Have Eyes remake (2006) to Pirhanna 3D (2010), he’s has always been adept at building tension regardless of the antagonist. The script by Michael and Shawn Rasmussen was seemingly pulled straight from USA Network or some other staple of mediocre cable TV movies. The dialogue was pretty useless overall with little-to-no character building and the plot would have worked exactly the same if there were no speaking lines at all. Fortunately, Aja has a very imaginative filmmaking eye and was able to wring all the best elements of the screenplay into a useable 87-minutes. It was fairly entertaining while it lasted but any longer and the deficiencies would have become far more jarring. Ultimately, it’s a win for Aja who moves on to Space Adventure Cobra (Yup!) in pre-production.
Honestly, I had no idea who Kaya Scodelario was and she was completely unrecognizable from her role in the Ted Bundy movie: Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. Nearest I could tell, she hadn’t really been the lead before…at least in anything this high-profile…but she acquitted herself well. As I mentioned earlier, the screenplay wasn’t doing anybody any favors but this was a physical role that required commitment and she gave it all she had.
Barry Pepper was the one recognizable actor on the project and it was an interesting turn to see him playing the tough-love father role. I haven’t really seen any of his work since the True Grit remake almost a decade ago but he had worked with Scoledario previously on The Maze Runner franchise, so at least there was some moderate familiarity for them both to lean on. Watching them try to hash out their family drama in between fending off gators didn’t fit in too naturally but the two of them had fairly good chemistry considering. It just would have been nice to see them get a chance to build the relationship outside of their particular circumstances.
Speaking of alligators, they definitely got the shortest straw of the bunch when it came to the script. Being trapped with a gator, in a rapidly flooding room, is frightening enough. There’s really no need to amplify the situation beyond belief, so let’s clear some things up. Gators aren’t pack-hunters, they’re ambush predators. They are also incredibly territorial so you wouldn’t find a squad of them zipping through the neighborhood, snapping up anything remotely edible. Of course, there have been some attacks on humans but we typically don’t fall into the prey category. I understand it’s a movie but misrepresenting the animals’ behavior is exactly why shark-bait titles such as The Shallows and 47 Meters Down are shitty movies. What made Jaws so effective was the shark behaving mostly like a shark…until the last 30-minutes where it becomes self-aware and starts hunting them instead…and the broader fear of the unknown. With this movie, the predictable and unprovoked attacks only detracted from what should make it scary. There were plenty of tense moments but I wouldn’t go so far as to call is scary. It should be noted that the practical makeup effects were phenomenal and you can almost feel every gaping wound and broken hone.
I really had no intention to see Crawl but I had a free afternoon, a gift card, and wasn’t really looking for something that was artfully crafted. The filmmakers actually maxed out the idea pretty well and that’s why there’s been a fairly strong audience response. The $36-million box office total tripled the production budget and, looking past the obvious faults, that’s quite a win.
Recommendation: If you’re out of options or just looking for a mindless thrill ride, you could do much worse than this. Don’t set your expectations too high…or at all really…and enjoy a well-made gator-bait, hurricane bonanza.