MOVIE REVIEW: "Crawl" (2019)
Synopsis: A woman and her injured father are trapped by floodwaters in their home during a hurricane. With the storm rising, they soon discover an even greater threat than water: a relentless attack by a flock of giant alligators.
Cinematographically speaking, animalistic creatures (terrestrial, aquatic and aerial) have been - and remain - protagonists of the most diverse horror / horror films for decades. However, many movies end up getting lost in their own ideas and delivering a murky result... Well, the good news is: That's definitely not the case with this movie.
Amidst the various clichés already known in the genre (a basic primer to follow), the film had everything to be just "more of the same", but somehow manages to excel (breathing a different air) and especially in the visual aspect differs from other films with similar themes.
The script, despite its noticeable flaws and some unexplained points (something that may be bothered by the lack of depth in the plot), assertively invests in a claustrophobic climate that feeds not only on the creatures themselves... but on the climatic conditions and scenarios where all the action takes place.
Based on relatively weak characters (but well personified by the cast, albeit average... led by Kate Scodelario), the film takes the focus off humans and puts the alligators on top and makes them the real protagonists. It is very interesting to see this role reversal being done in a credible and efficient manner, even though there is a nonsense spice in the middle of this transition (which results in some scenes loaded with excess compared to reality).
They are placed at the center of the horror show and do not disappoint in delivering creatively well-orchestrated attacks that put the viewer in tension mode in virtually every scene in which they appear. Particularly speaking, in a few films I've seen this kind of animal protagonism happen so consistently.
A considerable part of this hit is not only due to the script (which tries to escape the sameness), but also to the work of the director Alexandre Aja who makes a well calculated arrangement to organize the construction of the plot that gains increasingly tense and challenging contours along the way. projection, raising the level of the apparently "simplistic" project (considering the essence of the central plot).
The whimsical aspect of the production is something that deserves to be highlighted: above-average special effects (which at times sound very realistic), a gray photograph that fell like a glove so that the bubble surrounding the film was the right tone, and of a quick scene editing that gets you right to the point without much hassle.
Amongs ups and downs (a mix that doesn't harm the material), Crawl ends up presenting itself as an "out of the box" alternative and that offers something relatively new for audiences who enjoy this type of movie and expect to be impressed to see how brutally deadly some animals can be.
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