Movies are a fun and simple evening out and I tend to go every other week along with my friends. We all have Cineworld cards, meaning we pay a monthly fee for unlimited movies and a small discount on concessions. As apart of this pass, there are sometimes secret screenings, meaning that you do not know what movies you are going to see, but it is unreleased. And on my first secret screening, I saw Crawl.
Crawl is a disaster horror film set in Florida. Looking much like all of these movies about escaping sharks through swimming in water that is rising, Crawl features a female lead who is trapped with a few alligators within her old family home. She happens to be a professional swimmer, due to much encouragement as a child from her father. The story follows her and her father, whom she has an estranged relationship with now, due to family issues. They both are trapped with these alligators, who have escaped during the storm.
Crawl thrives on suspense. You’re always waiting to see when the alligator is going to pop up next. The movie features a few different jump scares and a bit of a bonding story as the daughter and father try to survive. There are many moments within the film when they could be saved, but it just doesn’t happen as easily as it could. This movie reminded me of literally any escape from a shark type movie – but with an alligator. Many moments were very predictable and I found the fear being through gore or random jump scares.
As someone who isn’t a fan of the horror genre, I didn’t enjoy the movie very much. I also felt it was just so much of the same stuff, but this time with a slightly different monster. The story between the daughter and father, though slightly heartwarming, was predictable and straigned. Crawl’s very ending also reflected this, feeling very incomplete and not showing far into the aftermath of the event that took place. Over all, I felt that Crawl wasn’t a very good or enjoyable movie – it’s not one I would recommend going to see, but it does have some clever swimming and trapping large animal scenes.
Crawl is coming to UK Cinemas August 23rd, and if you are interested in watching some large animals tear apart humans, go check it out.