Crawl (Florida the movie feat. Alligators and Hurricanes) has a 94% on RT

[theBmZ]

Just got out of this a couple hours ago. Was wondering if the main character was a University of Florida college student. Was surprised to see the film opens in the University of Florida, and as a Gainesville native, that was kind of humorous to see. Our crowd kind of cheered that moment lol.

As for the film itself, it's a solid creature feature throwback. Solid characters, with a decent back and forth, and effort put into the relationship, and scares. Some of the gore and set pieces were more violent than I was expecting. We had a family sitting in front of us, two parents, and 4 very young children. At the end, one of them said "Daddy, I want to watch The Crawl again". I thought for sure they were in the wrong theater.

It's a brisk watch, and a fun time at the movies. I'll never watch it again, but it sure as shit is better than The Hurricane Heist, and The Meg.

 

[More_Badass]

Watched Alligator (1980), Lake Placid, Rogue, Black Water, and this is, by far, the best "killer croc/gator" movie. None of those others even come close. Though Lake Placid is surprisingly entertaining due to the movie using the premise to trap a whole bunch of great character actors together in a campy scenario

IMO only The Shallows is comparable in regards to thrills, suspense, and maximum creature shenanigans, and that's a shark movie

 

[Deleted member 17990]

I'm honestly surprised this did so well, the cgi alligators looked horrible and it was a very predictable movie.

 

[Surfinn]

However good this movie is, they fucked up the marketing. The trailer was comically short to the point of my entire theater erupting in laughter. Like we're talking legitimately 5 or 10 seconds. Saw it before Spider-Man.

But I'm definitely curious now..

 

[gforguava]

This was pretty good, even surprisingly so considering I don't hold Aja in nearly as high regard as everyone else seems to.

It falls far short of my beloved The Shallows and I think if forced to choose I would pick Burning Bright for my goto animal+hurricane flick, tiger beats alligator thank you very much, but it is nice to have another movie in this style that is actually good. And not 'so dumb it's fun' or even 'good for this type of movie' but just a straight good film.

 

[Cpt-GargameL]

This was the last alligator movie and first alligator movie I've ever seen followed by Crawl

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0139414/

I liked Crawl a lot. Saw it Thursday night. There was a lady next to me who kept reacting with "ooh shit" "oh no" "oh hell no" "shittttt" that added to the experience in a positive way haha

I'd watch Crawl again with a different group of friends.

 

[Darkmaigle]

From the first trailer I knew this shit was gonna be good. Can't wait to catch it at the theater

 

[StrykerIsland]

Saw this tonight, was terrific. No bullshit, just gets right to it and doesn't let up.

 

[Ronabo]

My pet name for it has been Gatorcane.

 

[Deleted member 18025]

The movie was okay...

You really had to buy into the shit that was happening, otherwise it gets pretty dumb.

 

[More_Badass]

The movie was okay...

You really had to buy into the shit that was happening, otherwise it gets pretty dumb.

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That's the nature of a lot of genre films, like Don't Breathe, Attack The Block, A Quiet Place, Cop Car. They're practically built on you accepting their contrived and very specific concept/premise that allows for the various scenarios and set-pieces to occur. Even classics like Rear Window ask you to buy extremely convenient/contrived plot developments for the benefit of suspense and/or clever set-pieces

 

[Deleted member 18025]

That's the nature of a lot of genre films, like Don't Breathe, Attack The Block, A Quiet Place, Cop Car. They're practically built on you accepting their contrived and very specific concept/premise that allows for the various scenarios and set-pieces to occur. Even classics like Rear Window ask you to buy extremely convenient/contrived plot developments for the benefit of suspense and/or clever set-pieces

Click to shrink...

Unlike those other movies though, Crawl was really hard to accept. Don't get me wrong, it's still tense and suspenseful in the right places.

 

[SinkFla]

Do they call that a basement? Im pretty sure it's a crawl space. I'm assuming that was the basis for the name of the movie.

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In the trailer they are in a straight up basement though. Crawlspace like the name implies means you would only have about 2-3 feet high from ground to ceiling (for lack of a better term).

 

[Border]

In the trailer they are in a straight up basement though. Crawlspace like the name implies means you would only have about 2-3 feet high from ground to ceiling (for lack of a better term).

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But "basement" implies that you would have a sealed underground room with a wood/tile/concrete floor. They are running around in dirt, with exposed pipes/wiring, as water pours in through openings in the brick wall. It is much more a crawl space than a basement.

 

[More_Badass]

But "basement" implies that you would have a sealed underground room with a wood/tile/concrete floor. They are running around in dirt, with exposed pipes/wiring, as water pours in through openings in the brick wall. It is much more a crawl space than a basement.

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The director commented on this

Aja, however, would like to clarify that it is not a basement featured in Crawl, but rather a crawl space. Which, given the movie's title, makes sense.

"We looked into a lot of houses in Florida and there are indeed a lot of crawl spaces. Most of the crawl spaces are usually not higher than two to three feet," he said...

...Quick research indicates that houses in the Tampa area can indeed have crawl spaces, judging by the numerous "Crawl Space Repair" services that populate Google...

..."A lot of people now are digging the crawl space to double the space," explained Aja. "It's very common to dig your crawl space. So we went up to like four or five feet. But it's not a basement. We did research. We found this house that had a deeper crawl space."

Click to shrink...

 

[XxLeonV]

RT scoring system is super misleading. This film was good but I'd look to the IMDb score for something more on target. I say I enjoyed it, it wasn't anything special but it kept me engaged. It's a simple summer thriller flick with some nice edge of your seat moments.

 

[Rendering...]

This isn't the total trash that the trailer made it out to be? Wow, looks like I have something new to see this week after all.

 

[HadesHotgun]

In the trailer they are in a straight up basement though. Crawlspace like the name implies means you would only have about 2-3 feet high from ground to ceiling (for lack of a better term).

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As others have pointed out there are crawl spaces like that.


I too have never personally had a crawl space like that, however there are a lot of older places out along the coast, where they have the houses built up on stilts of various sizes due to flooding.

The ones on the water are usually very open and visible, but as you move inland a bit there are houses built up off the ground, but with a lot of brick facade on the base. These are probably built up for flooding but not waves like the houses near the water. They can be mostly closed off with bricks allowing for some drainage gaps.

This is probably that kind of house. Though I admit I haven't seen the film myself, but otherwise I think the trailer indicates a strong understanding of our terrible, dangerous, ugly and beautiful home.


Edit: my wife reminded that her grandparents who live on the gulf specifically have a really deep and scary crawl space that would be comparable in size to the trailer.

 

[VideogameVices]

Saw this today. Fuck it was great. It's really good and if you love a tense action/horror. This definitely is one of the best I've seen in awhile. Expertly put together with great leads.

Can get quite tense and there's a lot of really great scenes with loads of suspense. Very violent too.

9/10

Go see it. Loved it

Spoiler: near the finale so dont click unless you've seen it

Fuck me, when the dad got his arm twisted off; that loud cracking sound

JESUS!!!!

 

[More_Badass]

Saw this today. Fuck it was great. It's really good and if you love a tense action/horror. This definitely is one of the best I've seen in awhile. Expertly put together with great leads.

Can get quite tense and there's a lot of really great scenes with loads of suspense. Very violent too.

9/10

Go see it. Loved it

Spoiler: near the finale so dont click unless you've seen it

Fuck me, when the dad got his arm twisted off; that loud cracking sound

JESUS!!!!

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My theater was pretty empty, maybe 10 people overall, and there was still an audible reaction from the crowd when that happened

 

[Deleted member 13015]

And I thought this was going to be a bad horror movie.

I might go see it now.

 

[Buff DrinkLots]

Seen it, loved it, wonderful in a turn your brain off sort of way. It also made me jump way more than any other horror movie I can remember. My only complaint was the cgi.

 

[VideogameVices]

Seen it, loved it, wonderful in a turn your brain off sort of way. It also made me jump way more than any other horror movie I can remember. My only complaint was the cgi.

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your mind will always make a disconnect as clearly its not real. I thought it was very well done outside of a few shots where it doesnt look as real as it should. But the storm + water work + gator in water were all photorealistic.

 

[Fairy Godmother]

This movie was thrilling. The stake kept raising organically.
The pacing and characters were well directed and written. 5/5

 

[theusedversion]

I just want to say that I love Barry Pepper in everything I have seen him in. Severely underrated actor.

 

[Kinggroin]

Solid flick. Delivers alligators chomping on people as promised.

 

[Zulith]

I can see why people are up on it, especially if you are comparing it to other gator-centric films of this type. Yeah, it's one of the better ones in that category. But this film is a prime example of how misleading RT scores can sometimes be. I can see how 85% of critics gave it a "thumbs up / worth seeing" tier rating which is where it gets its score, but it's more of a 6.5/10 for me.

Best part of the film for me was the gradual build-up of the storm and all the imagery and atmosphere that went with that. Thought it was well done. I wasn't very compelled by the actual plot and dialog in the film. I generally do like films of this nature that feel very confining (The Descent is one of my favorites of that subgenre) but it just wasn't working for me here. I guess I've concluded that gators just don't make great foes if you are going to build a film around that concept.

People keep comparing this to The Shallows, and I think that's much more worth seeing.

 

[Kinggroin]

Watched Alligator (1980), Lake Placid, Rogue, Black Water, and this is, by far, the best "killer croc/gator" movie. None of those others even come close. Though Lake Placid is surprisingly entertaining due to the movie using the premise to trap a whole bunch of great character actors together in a campy scenario

IMO only The Shallows is comparable in regards to thrills, suspense, and maximum creature shenanigans, and that's a shark movie

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Best? I dunno, we'll see after I've gone through both Kraithong 1 and 2.

Spoiler

I'm sure Crawl's spot on the winner's podium is safe

 

[rude]

I just saw this. I'm not a screenwriter, but I feel like this movie would have been so much more interesting if it had focused on maybe one or two gators and given them distinct personalities/attack patterns or something. The movie would have been better if the struggle between the humans and gators felt more personal. I assumed that's what they were going to do when the first gator was stabbed. I thought they were going to make it come back for revenge.

Entertaining flick though. Really interested in knowing more about the technical aspects of filming/set design etc.

Oh and that gator trap in the shower was lifted straight from Don't Breathe lol

 

[lazybones18]

Saw this Wed night. Fun stuff. Walking around in that crawl space barefoot....*shivers*

 

[Soupman Prime]

Saw it today, I thought it was fine. Don't usually go see horrors but had time to kill and I got A list so might as well.

Spoiler

it got to a point where I thought her sister was gonna come from Boston and get killed while trying to save them.

 

[Powdered Egg]

Lmao The trailer doesn't do it justice then because it looked bad. I am surprised by the scores.

 

[metsallica]

I was pretty disappointed with this. Given Aja's previous work, I expected a much more violent, angry film. This was way too mainstream. It wasn't bad, it was quick, slick, and relatively fun, I just expected something else. Felt like a PG-13; much of the violence is obscured, and with a few seconds of editing they could've easily achieved that rating.

 

[NoName999]

Speaking as a Floridian the trailer stuck me as a wholy authentic representation of my home state.

But it still needed fire ants, mosquitoes, boa constrictors, palmetto bugs, Coral snakes, yellow flies, sink holes, and klansmen.

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I know this is 10 days later, but you mention all of that and not lovebug infestation? WTF?

 

[Kard8p3]

Watched Alligator (1980), Lake Placid, Rogue, Black Water, and this is, by far, the best "killer croc/gator" movie. None of those others even come close. Though Lake Placid is surprisingly entertaining due to the movie using the premise to trap a whole bunch of great character actors together in a campy scenario

IMO only The Shallows is comparable in regards to thrills, suspense, and maximum creature shenanigans, and that's a shark movie

Click to shrink...

Damn, you got me hyped as fuck to see this, I've LOVED Lake Placid since I was a child

 

[HadesHotgun]

I know this is 10 days later, but you mention all of that and not lovebug infestation? WTF?

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I mean, the stuff I mentioned is really awful while love bugs are just kinda there. Never had anybody show up in the ER on account of lovebugs.

 

[Naijaboy]

Crawl was a nice little film. Not much to write home about but it was as short and brutal as it needed to be. 7/10.

 

[HiLife]

It was aight. Certainly on beat with the shallows. Which was also just okay lol. Rolled my eyes at a few scenes.

 

[VideogameVices]

I enjoyed it heaps and recommend this to anyone looking for a fun horror flick with good levels of violence

 

[Temtastic Muns]

What an entertainingly lean film. I have a feeling Crawl is going to be my "Upgrade" for the year in terms of sleeper hit.

Probably the moment that made me squirm the most was when......

Spoiler

Haley was trying to get out of the second crawl space but it was stuck from above. Her initial rattling of the door made that cascade of spidery insects fall all over her face. Scodelario sold the hell out of that icky moment.

That, and I feared for Sugar the dog's well being throughout the entire thing. I was almost sure he (she?) was gonna get it during that last desperate swim up the staircase. o.O;

 

[phaeta]

Speaking as a Floridian the trailer stuck me as a wholy authentic representation of my home state.

But it still needed fire ants, mosquitoes, boa constrictors, palmetto bugs, Coral snakes, yellow flies, sink holes, and klansmen.

Click to shrink...

Just saw Crawl tonight and decided to take a look at the thread. I asked myself, "what are yellow flies?" Googled it. WHY?

 

[MysticGon]

Hot damn, I'm gonna watch 2moro then.