Crawl (2019)

 

***½ / *****

Okay, so I’ll get this out of the way: in order to really groove to Alexandre Aja’s “Crawl” (2019) you have to agree to look over some creative license. Well, you sometimes have to just cut off that part of the brain that wants to reason a situation where the heroine is caught in an alligator’s death roll, can outswim alligators, move and swim with elegance despite her leg also being trapped in the mouth of an alligator briefly, and having an arm completely caught in the mouth of an alligator freeing it through multiple gunshots. And then there’s the heroine’s pop, who had a broken leg held in place by a toolbelt and a major bite wound on his shoulder, but still manages to make it out (oh, and he completely loses an arm, wrapping a strap of shirt around the bloody meat wound) to a roof as a Category 5 hurricane hits Coral Lake, Florida. In all honesty, the film really asks you to just obediently forgo all rationale and have fun with what Aja gives you. And the leads—Kaya Scodelario, as an expert swimmer, Haley, attending the college of Florida in Gainesville, and her dad, Dave, played by Barry Pepper—are so good it is easier to swallow all the plot contrivances and conveniences such as available gun, flares, radios, and a boat. The alligators can gobble up and rip apart looters raiding a convenience store and rescuers (Ross Anderson’s Wayne, who once dated Haley’s sister, with another helper in the boat, both never have a chance) but not Haley who is such a good swimmer and so resourceful those “pea-brained lizard shits”  never can quite best her despite every effort to do so. Aja, to his credit, and an outlined screenplay definitely gets a lot of mileage out of the confined claustrophobia of Dave’s basement, where Haley finds him unconscious and hurt, trapped by the alligators—they found their way in through a drainage pipe—and under pressure to get out as the waters from the heavy rains of the hurricane gradually engulf the space. Anyone hoping to get them some alligator carnage will be happily satisfied even if Steve Erwin would greatly disapprove of the treatment of his favorite species had he been alive. The alligators are only featured as a menace hunting and feeding on prey that is available to them, while Haley and Dave try to get out of the basement as the water forces them to develop and carry out an escape plan. An escape hatch is unavailable due to a trunk sitting right on top of it, Haley will need to use the drainage pipe as her way out despite being an alligator travel tunnel. Meanwhile, the film also highlights the effects of the hurricane raging outside, the flood waters drowning vehicles and houses (and surrounding power poles/lines, roads, signs, trees, etc.), and the alligators swimming about the area. So Aja makes sure alligators are always visible and a major threat never to forget. In any silence or calm water an alligator could emerge to give viewers a jolt…Dave’s arm taken off is an example of that as was Wayne’s pulled by an alligator from the lower floor into the basement where he’s torn apart. One of those almost inescapable questions that questions the sanity of Haley and Dave is the idea to drive into or remain in an obvious disaster area that is an inevitable debris and flood zone. Haley driving into flooding waters and trees overtaken by heavy winds after a father who stayed at their old home despite every reason to get out just leaves a head scratch and “Why?!” directed right at the screen. But it is that old excuse: without them doing so you wouldn’t have the terror adventure story of survival. There is even a sequence where Dave, Haley, and their pet dog stand still in the flood waters as alligators encircled about as they realize they are right under the hurricane’s eye. So credibility is not the film's strong suit. That doesn't mean it isn't a hell of a lot of fun. Because the suspense of where the alligators are at any given moment and the curiosity as to how Aja and his filmmaking team would provide Haley and Dave an escape from seemingly indisputable odds do hold attention. I do think fans of creature features and disaster movies that aren't judged with absolute scrutiny might just find "Crawl" a thrill. And it doesn't overstay its welcome.

• The dynamic of father and daughter being so similar, their stubborn iron will and unyielding fight to stay alive is such a strength of the film. Their discussion of the end of the marriage, swimming and frustrations in their relationship, and not giving up on each other is acted impeccably.
• The search for Dave, with Haley first visiting his abandoned condo, and later locating him at the old family home provides an intrigue, as if Aja frames a mystery with daughter not leaving behind her dad. He is very lucky she didn't turn around at Wyatt's urging.