Crawl (2019) - Summary, Review (with Spoilers)

As long as you are looking for a bunch of jump scares and an exhibition of human endurance, when the adrenaline is pumping, you’ll love Crawl.

Director(s)		Alexandre Aja
Screenplay By		Michael Rasmussen, Shawn Rasmussen
Date Released		7/12/2019
Genre(s)		Action, Thriller
Good If You Like		Jump Scares
Isn’t For You If You		Want Realistic Battles Against Gators Hate Seeing People Do The Absolute Dumbest Things When Their Life Is In Danger
Noted Cast
Haley	Kaya Scodelario
Dave	Barry Pepper
Beth	Morfydd Clark

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Crawl Plot Summary & Review

Haley has had a strained relationship with her father for quite some time. Partly it is due to him being her former swim coach and also due to the reasons behind why her mom and dad, Dave, divorced. Yet, when her older sister Beth can’t get in contact with their dad, despite it being a category 5 hurricane, Haley goes to check on her father. Someone who, as seen in the trailer, is trapped due to a local alligator farm flooding and Haley ends up trapped too. Forcing them both to fight for their lives.

Highlights

The Jump Scares

If your goal is watching, waiting, for people to be attacked by alligators, Crawl delivers. Multiple times them big ass bastards will come out of nowhere and their kill count is surprisingly high and gory in the movie. Making it so you may begin to question, halfway through, will everyone make it out alive?

On The Fence

You Will Have To Suspend Your Disbelief

Neither Haley nor Dave have experience wrestling or fighting gators. Haley might be a bit athletic, but she isn’t brawny. As for Dave? While he can likely build a house, the man isn’t built like a WWE wrestler. Both are average so them getting away from at least half a dozen, or more, gators throughout the movie – with injuries? Yeah, no way, in reality, would that happen. Especially considering the injuries they get.

When The Movie Tries To Get Sentimental

I think we can agree no one is coming to this movie to see a father and daughter bond as they face death or living the rest of their life missing a limb. However, I’ll admit, the moments are sometimes touching. Not enough to get emotional over, but it helps push why Haley doesn’t abandon her dad during the multitude of chances she gets. Much less the dog.

Crawl Overall: Mixed (Divisive)

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As said in the overview, as long as you are coming for jump scares and to see two average people face alligators bigger than them, you’ll be fine. Will you also have to deal with sentimental moments and situations which make you think, “Come on now…” absolutely. Yet, the film is rather entertaining, and you’ll likely get a kick out of it. Especially if you watch it with others.

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Crawl Ending Explained & Commentary (with Spoilers)

Ending Explained

Despite Dave having his calf bone ripped out of his leg, and his arm, from the elbow down ripped off – her survive. Also, even with her being bit, dragged, tossed about, multiple times, Haley survives. They somehow make it out that basement and walk up the stairs, and make their way to the roof and get rescued. Oh, and somehow that dog lives too. Even though many people died where we often see it stand and considering it isn’t soft-spoken or fast, all things considered, it should have died.

Now, as for why the dad was in the house? Sentimental reasons. He was supposed to have sold the house but with him losing his kids, his ex-wife moving on with some man in Europe, the house was all he had left. As for why he was in the crawl space? That’s harder to say. Considering his radio and tool belt, I want to say he was checking the pipes, maybe clearing traps, but with the whole gator thing happening, it was hard to not forget the past when you were hearing a hissing sound or seeing people flung about like rag dolls.

Question(s) Left Unanswered

How was it, with them bleeding from deep wounds, did Dave and Haley not bleed out or lose feeling in their limbs due to their tourniquets?
Considering the size of some of those gators, did some come in through the opening of the garage door or was that drain pipe bigger than it appeared? Or was it they were raised in the space between the basement and the outside world hence how big they got?

Is A Sequel Possible?

Technically they could put the family through all this again either with alligators or a different animal, but even with this almost meeting its budget of $13.5 million this weekend, it has to double that to be a hit. Possibly more to guarantee a sequel. So I wouldn’t bet on seeing a Crawl 2.