Crawl - Review
Director: Alexandra Aja
Cast: Kaya Scodelario, Barry Pepper
When a Category 5 hurricane hits her Florida home town, Haley (Scodelario) ignores all evacuation orders and goes off in search of her missing father, Dave (Pepper). Haley finds Dave severely injured in the basement of their family home that slowly begins to flood as the raging storm outside strengthens. As the water levels rise, the father and daughter face an even more dangerous threat - a pack of gigantic alligators intent on feasting on anything that makes a splash.
Director Alexandra Aja has cut his teeth making horrors his entire career but Crawl transpires to be his most commercially appealing effort to date. Having grasped a clear understanding of the film's limitations, Aja manages to channel them and craft a white knuckle ride where you never know where the next chomp is going to come from. At a taut 87-minutes, Aja knows when to stop the fun so as not to risk repeating the same threats and near-misses the characters suffer at the mouths of hungry alligators.
Kaya Scodelario (known for her work in Skins, The Maze Runner franchise and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) tackles the lead role and gives an impressive performance. Haley is a character with minimal depth but Scodelario effectively portrays her personal frustrations with her swimming career and unresolved emotional conflict surrounding the divorce of her parents. However, it's her physicality that truly shines and through this strength, the British actress redeems her character's paper thin personality.
Rising water results in increased horror as more and more alligators enter the basement where Haley and Dave are kept captive. The toothy terrors are particularly well realised and Aja doesn't shy away from shooting them in all of their scaly glory, their eyes glistening in the dark as they fixate on their next meal. However, the film starts to lose its bite when the focus shifts away from the predators and moves onto the family drama. Haley and Dave reminisce about stories from their past and heal old wounds that have caused their rift, using every screenwriting cliche in the book as they do so.
A simple story featuring a pair of characters that would sink if not supported by the sensation thrills and satisfying action, Crawl is a perfect summer horror film.
EB
Cast: Kaya Scodelario, Barry Pepper
Director Alexandra Aja has cut his teeth making horrors his entire career but Crawl transpires to be his most commercially appealing effort to date. Having grasped a clear understanding of the film's limitations, Aja manages to channel them and craft a white knuckle ride where you never know where the next chomp is going to come from. At a taut 87-minutes, Aja knows when to stop the fun so as not to risk repeating the same threats and near-misses the characters suffer at the mouths of hungry alligators.
Kaya Scodelario (known for her work in Skins, The Maze Runner franchise and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) tackles the lead role and gives an impressive performance. Haley is a character with minimal depth but Scodelario effectively portrays her personal frustrations with her swimming career and unresolved emotional conflict surrounding the divorce of her parents. However, it's her physicality that truly shines and through this strength, the British actress redeems her character's paper thin personality.
Rising water results in increased horror as more and more alligators enter the basement where Haley and Dave are kept captive. The toothy terrors are particularly well realised and Aja doesn't shy away from shooting them in all of their scaly glory, their eyes glistening in the dark as they fixate on their next meal. However, the film starts to lose its bite when the focus shifts away from the predators and moves onto the family drama. Haley and Dave reminisce about stories from their past and heal old wounds that have caused their rift, using every screenwriting cliche in the book as they do so.
A simple story featuring a pair of characters that would sink if not supported by the sensation thrills and satisfying action, Crawl is a perfect summer horror film.
EB
Comments
Post a Comment