Review: Crawl (2019)

There's something to be said for a simplistic creature feature.  A bare-bones, no-frills film that gets to the action and doesn't let up until the credits roll.  Crawl is such a film.

When I say bare-bones, I mean it.  The plot?  Stuck in a house swarming with alligators during a hurricane.  The actors?  Mostly a two-person show between Barry Pepper and Kaya Scodelario (if anyone else appears, assumed they aren't long for this world).  The run time?  A cool 87 minutes.  It takes about 15 minutes for the movie to get to the titular crawl space and it is a fight for survival almost until the credits cross the screen.

It isn't without some shading - Pepper's character is the father of Scodelario's, and they are somewhat estranged.  It easily explains how she is able to outswim the alligators (she is a collegiate swimmer) and then lets the action take it from there.

Frankly, both actors are giving this movie more than it needs - which might be why it is such a gem of a film.  Pepper tears into this like it is a family drama, and Scodelario's Haley is a topnotch final girl.  If the movie was a bigger hit - it only grossed $39 million in the US - I think she would easily be included amongst the best in this particular genre.

The movie does earn its R rating.  Both of our main characters get attacked multiple times, and the movie doesn't shy away from gore (though it is less gory than director Alexandre Aja's Piranha 3-D).  The movie is just as relentless on its characters as it is the audience, and the feeling of fatigue that both actors portray by the end feels both real and earned.

The alligators of the film are well rendered.  Even in the water, they have weight to them, so you never feel that you are looking at computer-generated creatures.  Really, all of the effects are well done - the house is a perfect piece of set design, as is the exterior.  During brief moments where they are outside of the house, the surrounding area looks like a neighborhood people would live in (well, outside of the torrents of water).

I cannot recommend this brutally efficient film enough.  Obviously, those who don't like gore or creature features will want to avoid it, but for everyone else, it is a good time.

Also, they don't kill the dog, which kicks it up a notch as far as recommendations go.

8.5 out of 10