Review: Crawl

This horror thriller snuck into cinemas without much fanfare, and threatens to leave much the same way. That’d be a real shame; at a time when talking loud and saying nothing seems to be the way to go when it comes to thrillers, this manages to be one of the more effective thrill-rides of the year largely thanks to twists that feel earned and scary scenarios that (largely) make sense.

(also people get chomped on a lot)

When her father (Barry Pepper) won’t answer his phone as a hurricane bears down on his Florida home, university swim team struggler Haley (Kaya Scodelario) drives down to check out what’s up. Turns out, quite a bit: the streets are flooded, there’s no sign of dad in the old family home but a radio’s playing down in the rapidly flooding basement, and you know what else is down there? Alligators. 

At barely 90 minutes and with pretty much all the action taking place in a grand total of one real location (the house - even when you think you're out, it pulls you back in), this still manages to come up with a string of tense scenarios based on the idea that getting eaten by an alligator is a very bad thing – as demonstrated via a range of supporting characters who’re lucky to get a complete sentence out before being chomped.

The story feels smart because the characters aren't railroaded into set-pieces; once the basic set up is in place there are a number of times where the characters try something logical to escape and while it doesn't work, it doesn't lead to an obvious pay-off (like a jump scare) either. It makes the nutty scenario feel more natural and more stressful - not every bad move has to lead to sudden death when the overall situation will kill you if you can't find a way out.

She doesn’t get much to work with character-wise, but Scodelario radiates a drive and determination that makes for an effective heroine up against a string of circumstances that would test pretty much anyone. It doesn’t hurt that a smart script doesn’t require her to do anything stupid to get in danger – the combination of rising waters and rising numbers of gators has that covered just fine. It’s gripping, occasionally gory, teeth-gnashing fun.

- Anthony Morris