Crawl Film Review: Watch Out for the Gators

Crawl is a creature-feature that takes the viewer into the heart of alligator-infested waters during a vicious hurricane in Florida. While other residents are evacuating the area along the hurricane’s path, Haley (Kaya Scodelario) and her father (Barry Pepper) have to fight their way to survival. In their trail are not only gigantic gators but also the continually rising water level. If they do not use all their mental and physical energy, theirs is a lost cause as we see in the Crawl film review.

As I walked out of the theater, I could barely remember any of the characters. Neither one of the principal characters leaves a mark on you. Crawl is not particularly memorable as no one scene sticks with you, even if briefly upon exiting the theater. It is not easy to relate with the film’s protagonists as they are wrestling ferocious alligators. However, the viewer should be able to, at the very least, feel sorry for them. We learn that the duo is not on talking terms just before the hurricane strikes Florida. When they have to work as a team against the ferocity of Nature, they come across as arrogant, which does not allow the audience to sympathize with them. Instead, you feel for their cuddly dog Sugar caught up in all of this. The father calls his daughter an “apex predator,” which she does not like much.

We are told to believe that although the father-daughter duo is going through a rough patch, the daughter will go to any lengths to save her dad when in dire straits. Crawl never thinks twice before taking this route and assumes that the audience will readily go along with it as well. However, for Crawl, this does not click, and as a consequence, the film never entirely realizes its true potential.

Although the gator scenes are executed impactfully, as a viewer, you watch the film from a distance without ever getting invested in it. Crawl is somewhat engaging in the second half, and for that much of its hour and a half runtime, it keeps you somewhat intrigued. The claustrophobic atmosphere that the director seems to be gunning for here almost pays off. There are plenty of moments when, as a viewer, you want a whiff of fresh air. And still, the constricting space that the film operates in brings on inevitable suffocation. As the duo tries and dodges the gators, others are not so fortunate. While attempting to flee, they are maliciously preyed upon. This lends a gruesomeness to the film that it lacks until then. After all, what good is a creature-feature if it fails to deliver a generous amount of goriness.

Coming back to the “apex predator,” the duo never for once appear as such. Instead, a majority of the humans in the movie succumb to the gators lurking in the ravaging floodwaters. While the humans struggle to overcome the adverse conditions, the gators appear at ease with the harsh environment as they look out for unsuspecting prey. The film postures as an ode to the eternal human spirit. The truth can’t be further from it. If anything, it is human instinct to, at the very least, make an effort to escape when caught in such an unfortunate situation. The film would have benefited greatly had the filmmakers focused more on the thrill aspect with two helpless souls trying to dodge the gators. Instead, they stray into the predator-prey conundrum, denying Crawl the opportunity to an even more engaging horror-thriller piece.

For fans of this genre, Crawl will prove a mere fleeting distraction. It fails to stay long enough in one’s consciousness, but while it is on, Crawl affords for shlocky entertainment. There are better movies with both humans and gators, and it would be reasonable to opt for one of them instead and wait for Crawl to stream.

Crawl film review rates Crawl (2.5 / 5)

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