Crawl But Not Too High

 Flicking through Netflix searching for something to watch but not necessarily commit to I came across Crawl. It ticked a lot of my boxes; horror, natural disaster and movie so it didn’t require a long bout of attention. Not to mention it stars Kaya Scodelario who I have loved since Skins. 

In many ways this achieved what I wanted it to, easy watching that didn’t require focus but it also left a lot to be desired. 

From a story perspective and acting as well the lengths that Haley (Kaya) was willing to go to just to check in on her father didn’t make a lot of since as we saw more eye rolling and bad mouthing of him than concern when the sister rang concerned she couldn’t reach him. But she still ignored radio and law enforcement advise to not go. The other bigger issue for me was the fact that she was so blasé about the fact she was heading towards a HURRICANE. She drives through torrential rain and heavy winds groaning and squinting like she is going though your typical thunderstorm, a tree blows though a window and she looks annoyed, she discovers water rising and looks shocked even though they live near a levy. A good part of the beginning was me yelling at her that she was in a hurricane and than advising her on what to do I.e don’t try to out swim the alligators (yes I will get to that) instead go to higher ground like the second story or roof.  

After saying this I will give credit where credit is due. This movie was designed to be a action/horror and when the story is in those moments it works well. The acting is better, is somewhat stereotypical of the genre as with the writing. This movie is set in Florida so they use alligators as the partially surprise threat (partially because the synopsis and trailer give them away) and they do cause the most damage both to Haley, her father and the 5 unsuspecting victims. It shows enough blood and bodily damage to fit the horror genre but there aren’t any real scares.

Overall, while I can’t say it was good I also can’t say it was a waste of time. I wouldn’t watch it again but if you like the natural disaster films with a hint of horror this is it in basic form. I would just give a heads up to lower expectations for a good storyline.