Today I am watching Crawl – a film I really wanted to watch at the cinema back during summer 2019, but time constraints made it impossible to squeeze into my schedule. As such, I have been waiting for the right opportunity to sit down with the movie.
My pre-existing knowledge of this film is limited. I know Crawl stars Kaya Scodelario (forever known to us Brits as Effy from Skins) and it is a monster movie featuring a really big alligator.
There’s also something about a storm and/or a flood… and…
…ah, heck, I don’t know. I just know Crawl is a creature feature and I want to watch it.
So, enough with the preamble, I really want to see what Crawl has to offer. I love a good monster movie, so let’s just hope this offers up something satisfying.
*Presses play*
10secs – The running time is less than 90 minutes. A monster movie that is less than 90 minutes is already doing things right in my book.
3mins – Kaya Scodelario is playing a swimmer. This is a skill that will come in handy later in the film.
5mins – A hurricane is on the way, and as Kaya Scodelario’s father is not answering his phone, she’s off to his house to check he is OK.
7mins – I’m going to say this now, this is clearly a bad idea. Has she not seen Twister, Dante’s Peak, or Volcano? Extreme weather conditions and/or natural disasters are not something you want to be driving towards.
11mins – After arriving at her dad’s condo, Kaya Scodelario finds… no dad. Her dad’s dog is at the condo though, so bonus points for bringing a dog into this movie. IT HAD BETTER NOT GET EATEN BY AN ALLIGATOR!!!
17mins – Still concerned about her dad (and clearly putting this poor dog in danger), Kaya Scodelario has now gone to the old family home where she finds… no dad.
Seriously, where is this guy? Is he a semi-professional hide and seek player or something?!
19mins – She’s found him! Yay! Eww… and he’s been bitten by something.
20mins – Well, bite or no bite, get him out of the house, into the car and ALONG WITH THE DOG make sure to get the heck out of there!
21mins 20secs – Sh*t the bed! A BIG alligator has just turned up.
23mins – Phew! The alligator has gone.
28mins – Scodelario and her dad – played by Barry Pepper – are trapped in the basement of the house. Pepper is injured, and the alligator is lurking.
28mins 20secs – My knowledge of alligators is pretty much non-existent, so I have no idea what to do in this situation, other than to throw Barry Pepper at the creature and run in the other direction (picking up the dog in the process of course).
30mins – ARGGH! There’s two alligators!
31mins – This is pretty tense.
37mins – OK, so the basement is now flooding, the alligators are still knocking around, and NO ONE HAS CHECKED ON THE DOG!
44mins – For those wondering, the dog is OK. And in turn, this makes me OK.
50mins – So… the search and rescue team have erm… turned up… and have failed to do the rescue part. In related news, there are more than two alligators swimming around and they have a taste for human flesh.
59mins – I can’t imagine this movie was the most fun to film. The actors are continuously crawling around in water. Fun to watch though – from the comfort of my dry sofa.
1hr 3mins – There are some great visuals in this movie. The underwater shots in particular are good.
*Presses pause*
How well did this movie do at the box office?
*Googles ‘Crawl box office’*
$91.5 million from a budget of $13.5 million. Hmm… not bad, but it should have done better than this.
From a quick look on the Wikipedia page it seems to suggest there wasn’t a press screening for Crawl, which could have hurt its box office potential. No press screenings, or even a late review embargo, is usually seen as a bad sign.
The Wikipedia page suggests that had this movie screened early for the press it would have received a positive buzz, as it was a critical hit. This would have helped it secure a bigger opening weekend.
Yeah, judging by how decent this movie is, I’d say that’s a fair assessment. I think it just needed more people talking about it, and then going to see it – which of course I’m guilty of.
OK, back to the film.
*Presses play*
1hr 9mins – The eye of the storm!
1hr 16mins – Things are getting pretty dicey. Barry Pepper has lost an arm, the alligators are refusing to let their lunch get away, and Kaya Scodelario is trapped in a shower. However, the dog is fine.
1hr 19mins – There’s less than tens minutes to go and it’s no looking good for Scodelario.
1hr 23mins – Nah, she’s fine.
1hr 23mins 20secs – Barry Pepper also seems fine, even though he’s clearly bleeding to death. More importantly, the dog is OK. Wet, but OK. Now someone attend to Barry Pepper’s arm, and get that dog a towel!
*Presses stop*
Not bad. Not bad at all.
Crawl isn’t the most original creature feature, and it ends quite quickly, but it is a heap of fun. Kaya Scodelario works well as the lead, and the amount of crap she has to go through (underwater scenes, being attacked by creatures, shouting a lot etc) demonstrates how much she worked for her pay cheque.
If you’re a fan of disaster/creature movies, then this is one to add to the list. My only complaint is that I can see this getting turned into a series of low budget sequels.
Either way, Crawl is good.
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Thank you for taking the time to read this post about Crawl. For more horror, check out one of the recommended reads below.
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2 Responses to Watching Crawl (2019)
I’ve never heard of it. I must be getting old!
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It didn’t get marketed very well, so it’s more likely that you just missed seeing anything about it.
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