Crawl (2019)

Horror director Alexandre Aja doesn't always make the kind of horror movies that speak to me. After his impressive and upsetting debut, High Tension, his films have fallen more on the B-movie side. While Crawl falls quite plainly into the B-movie category it is all the things one would want from such a film. It's a tight, compact story, full of excitement and chills, with a real enough story and characters to pull us into the fun.

Here's the simple story; during a hurricane a young woman attempts to rescue her father and encounters alligators who are  hunting. Standard pitch: Jaws with alligators. Aja tells this just just as it needs to be told. He gives us a clear and real picture of who his hero, Haley, is and then sets up her struggle. We follow her through it without her making terribly horror movie cliche decisions. The hurdles she faces are frightening without being ridiculous. And the story is just captivating enough to propel you through it.

Fun, scary, and not stupid. While I tend to be drawn to horror that comments more on issues in our culture, perhaps explores how our society can be a terrifying place, sometimes a movie that's just fun frights can be entertaining too.

Crawl
Starring: Kaya Scodelario, Barry Pepper
Director: Alexandre Aja
Writers: Michael Rasmussen, Shawn Rasmussen