Crawl (2019)

[Empress1]

Quote

When a massive hurricane hits her Florida hometown, Haley (Kaya Scodelario) ignores evacuation orders to search for her missing father (Barry Pepper). Finding him gravely injured in the crawl space of their family home, the two become trapped by quickly encroaching floodwaters. As time runs out to escape the strengthening storm, Haley and her father discover that the rising water level is the least of their fears.

I saw this movie because it is literally a hundred degrees outside today with a heat index of hell and I happened to be near a theater and it was starting in 10 minutes. I figured, I'll use their AC instead of mine - I've seen quite a few movies for this reason. I'd seen the trailer. But it's actually good! Much better than I expected. It does a couple of things well: you only have to care about the father and Haley, not the entire town, and the plot is really simple: Dad and Haley are stuck in a crawl space that is flooding, and it's Florida so there are alligators everywhere. I am not claustrophobic but I could feel how tight things would be under that house (it was also fucking gross). They weren't superheroes - they had strengths it made sense for them to have. The daughter was a competitive swimmer so her being able to hold her breath for a long time and swim fast made sense, and they were Florida natives so it made sense that they understood a few things about alligators. And they don't escape unscathed (although I thought Haley's wounds should have been worse).

The acting isn't great and I didn't really care about the emotional back story (Haley is mad at Dad because of her parents' divorce, Dad can't bring himself to sell the old family house ... which I guess won't be an issue since it was completely destroyed by the hurricane), but the "trapped in a flooding house with alligators" stuff is very effective. And it's only an hour and a half so it's not bloated.

I compete in sprint (short distance) triathlons for fun so I had fun imagining I could out-swim an alligator. (I am certain I cannot.)

[raven]

23 hours ago, Empress1 said:

(it was also fucking gross)

I was more freaked out by the endless possibilities for infection than by the gators, LOL.  So gross!! 

Great setting if you want a claustrophobic atmosphere.  I kept thinking too, how physical the shoot was for the actors. 

I agree, it was entertaining.  I had spoiled myself on Sugar's fate, so I could relax and just go with it.  I ended up worrying about the dad though, who was a decent character (he kept looking out for his dog! yay!) and I kept wondering if/when he would sacrifice himself for Haley.  I liked Haley quite a bit, even though she placed the 911 call knowing the gator was a couple of feet away from her, rather than going back to the corner.   

Definitely not a bad way to escape the heat in someone else's a/c.   My theater was a little over half full so I guess others had the same idea.

[Empress1]

20 hours ago, raven said:

I was more freaked out by the endless possibilities for infection than by the gators, LOL.  So gross!! 

It must have sucked for the actors to have to be drenched all day every day during this shoot.

[benteen]

I saw the movie recently.  I didn't think it was bad and it was impressively shot but I thought the movie needed humor.  Jaws is an edge-of-your-seat thriller that plays it straight but it had humor and clever dialogue.  There's no humor whatsoever and every piece of dialogue is cliché and forgettable.  The only humor the movie shows is the choice of song in the end credits.

Crawl isn't a bad way to spend an afternoon but it could have been better.

[kitmerlot1213]

22 hours ago, benteen said:

I saw the movie recently.  I didn't think it was bad and it was impressively shot but I thought the movie needed humor.  Jaws is an edge-of-your-seat thriller that plays it straight but it had humor and clever dialogue.  There's no humor whatsoever and every piece of dialogue is cliché and forgettable.  The only humor the movie shows is the choice of song in the end credits.

Crawl isn't a bad way to spend an afternoon but it could have been better.

There were a couple of humorous lines:  when the dad tells Haley to look for the wet wall and she snaps back with "Dad, they're all wet!" and the scene with the dad listening to the radio announcer advising "to not stay on low land" and the dad shouts "No shit!"  I busted out laughing :):)  And I adored Haley's triumphant "Apex predator, all day" after she escaped the gators and got into the boat.

I jumped a couple times when the gators would show up suddenly and I thoughts the stunts were done extremely well, especially the ones where she's swimming.  I did have a question though--why was the family home's crawl space connected the drainpipe?  I don't think that's typical for Florida homes.

Overall a good summer monster movie:):)