Legends of horror, director Alexandre (Piranha 3-D) Aja
and producer Sam (The Evil Dead) Raimi teamed up for this solid and effective alligator
thriller. Kaya Scodelario comes to Florida in the face of a massive hurricane
to check on her father (Barry Pepper). When
she arrives, she is horrified to find he’s trapped in his crawlspace suffering
from a gator wound. The pair then must
fend off hungry gators while in the midst of raging winds and an ever-rising
flood.
Aja makes good use of the claustrophobic setting. He deftly takes Florida’s two worst
nightmares, hurricanes and gators, and combines them into one satisfying
popcorn thriller. The suspense is tightly
wound and the film crackles when Scodelario (who has an Amber Heard quality
about her) is risking life and limb to save her dad. The various subplots (that include a gang of
thieves whose hurricane heist is foiled by swarming gators and rescue workers getting
turned into gator chow) are pretty much only there to pad the body count (and
running time), but they also help provide the brief but juicy gore. I could’ve also done without Scodelario’s
swimming flashbacks (that seem inspired by The Shallows), although they don’t
detract from the main story too much.
What really matters is that Aja does fine job
setting up the scares and springing them like a master. Flawed though it may be, whenever Aja is
cooking up the suspense, Crawl delivers the goods. It’s certainly more respectable than your
typical SyFy Channel Original, but the film wears its down and dirty
craftsmanship like a badge of honor, which to a Killer Alligator Movie fan is
commendable.
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