If there’s such a thing as a breezy thriller, Crawl would be it. There might not be much of a story but I was at least moderately entertained thanks to Kaya Scodelario’s physically demanding performance and thus this is probably worthy of a rental.
Crawl
(2019)
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller, Horror
Paramount | R – 88 min. – $39.99 | October 15, 2019
Date Published: 10/20/2019 | Author: The Movieman
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Paramount provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 3.5/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: When a massive hurricane hits her Florida town, college student Haley (KAYA SCODELARIO) ignores the evacuation orders to search for her missing father, Dave (BARRY PEPPER). After finding him gravely injured in their family home, the two of them become trapped by the rapidly encroaching floodwaters. With the storm strengthening, Haley and Dave discover an even greater threat than the rising water level — a relentless attack from a pack of gigantic alligators. Review: Sometimes less is more is the right path for certain kinds of movies. A few years back there was a film called Lights Out, directed by David F. Sandberg (who would go on to helm Shazam), which was very short (<80 minutes without credits) and while nothing phenomenal, still was entertaining. Crawl is a similar type of film, quite short and yet the filmmakers don’t overcomplicate things with some pointless B-story and instead squarely focuses on the relationship between Haley and David and their fight for survival against not only alligators, but the elements. Is Crawl any sort of exceptional movie? Course not. Probably doesn’t rank all that high against others in the survival genre. But even so, I did find the film a rather fun, B-movie-esque romp (reminding me something from the ‘90s) with just enough character development to make the audience at least somewhat care about the two characters’ well being. Speaking of, the two main cast members, Kaya Scodelario (the defunct Maze Runner franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) and Barry Pepper (also Maze Runner, True Grit), both work well off each other, with Scodelario really making the most out of a limited character. On the (slight) downside, and understandable with its limited $13.5 million budget, some of the effects weren’t always the best, though with a fair amount of the movie taking place in a dark space, does help mask some of the visual effects’ shortcomings while the dark, stormy skies seemed to be lifted right from The Hurricane Heist. That’s not a good thing. Crawl was directed by Alexandre Aja, a filmmaker I’m not a big fan of on the whole. High Tension had interesting moments ruined by a lame twist, Mirrors was a half-decent supernatural-horror, Piranha 3D had a similar B-movie callback and The 9th Life of Louis Drax wasn’t great but did have a style to go along with a fascinating mystery element (and never did see his Hills Have Eyes remake). With Crawl I did appreciate the minimalism and not overcomplicating things, very well knowing this is a straightforward creature feature that, albeit not perfect, was quite entertaining. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 3.25/5 |
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This release comes with a slip cover and redemption code for the Digital HD copy. Intro to Alternate Opening (0:25) — Director Alexandre Aja introduces the alternate opening. Alternate Opening (4:49) — This is a different opening sequence done in motion comic form. Deleted and Extended Scenes (6:03) — Just three scenes either cut down or removed. Nothing of great note, however. Beneath Crawl (28:05) is a behind-the-scenes featurette on the story and production, how it came together. Includes cast and crew interviews by Director Alexandre Aja, Producer Sam Raimi, Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper and others. Category 5 Gators: The VFX of Crawl (11:37) breaks down the effects work done on the film. Alligator Attacks (1:32) is a compilation of the attack scenes in the movie. |
VIDEO – 4.5/5 |
| Paramount releases Crawl on Blu-ray presented with a 2.35 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition transfer. For the most part the video quality is pretty good, even with the bulk of the movie taking place in an enclosed and dark environment. Detail is relatively sharp throughout, black levels appear well balanced and there were no obvious signs of artifacts, aliasing, banding or other flaws. |
AUDIO – 4.75/5 |
| The movie comes with a 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track, which is rather strong, outputting crisp and clear dialogue via the central speaker but the most impressive part are the surround elements, hearing every drop or splash of water, the snarling/hisses of the alligators coming from all direction. A little surprising this didn’t get a Dolby Atmos track, but still an impressive track. |
OVERALL – 3.75/5 |
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If there’s such a thing as a breezy thriller, Crawl would be it. There might not be much of a story but I was at least moderately entertained thanks to Kaya Scodelario’s physically demanding performance and thus this is probably worthy of a rental. The Blu-ray offers up great video and audio transfers and an okay selection of bonus material. |