Crawl

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A woman named Haley Keller (played by Kaya Scodelario) goes to her family home during a category 5 hurricane in order to find her father (played by Barry Pepper). The two have to survive both the hurricane and alligators lurking in the depths. I think Crawl can be best described as popcorn entertainment. The movie’s about an hour and a half. It seems like it just wants to show up and do its thing. Now, it helps that I didn’t go into this film expecting it to be a masterpiece. I mean this movie does fall into a lot of horror movie traps. Characters are introduced that are just there to die. There are some plot holes that I have to question. With the exceptions of our main leads, a lot of the actors aren’t very good. The visual effects are solid. They aren’t anything I can call amazing, but they actually work well enough. But, if I’m being completely honest, this is a movie that clearly knows what it is. It doesn’t show any interest in transcending the genre. It succeeds at being a simple creature feature. It also takes itself just seriously enough. It doesn’t go for tongue-in-cheek laughs, but still knows exactly what it is. I don’t always need a movie that elevates the horror genre, or pushes the boundaries of what the genre can be. Sometimes I just need a movie that’s purely fun.     

7 / 10