Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Kaya Scodelario, Barry Pepper, Morfydd Clark, Ross Anderson, Jose Palma, George Somner, Anson Boon, Ami Metcalf, Tina Pribicevic, Srna Vasiljevic, Colin McFarlane, Annamarie Serda, Savannah Steyn.
Animal attacks are the stuff of nightmares, from above in Hitchcock’s classic film adaptation of Du Maurier’s The Birds, to the B Movies that sees humanity tackle insects and arachnids, and even underwater in one of the greatest films of all time, Jaws; the world of nature has ways of making us scared, to remind us that we may think that we, as a species, have reached the pinnacle of the food chain. However, creatures the world over, are hungry, and we have no right to complain that they see as us as their next meal, especially with the way we have encroached into their habitat, and have created a climate of change that makes us vulnerable to their need to feed and quell their hunger.
Film making has moved on, and whilst Jaws will arguably be seen as the epitome of such a genre, the effects used at the time have moved on. There is no doubting its fear factor, the presence of such a beast near a coastal town splitting a community in two, the rights and wrongs on both sides that present the need to balance the economic cost and the human life. To live up to this film takes balls of steel on the mind of the writer, the producer and the director, for it is impossible to breathe new life into a genre without having the comparisons made to the greatest to have been created.
Crawl though comes close; it not only makes the viewer deeply uncomfortable with the use of Florida swamp alligators but it drives the narrative of climate change and the impact on the individual when nature bites back.
Set against the devastation of a hurricane storm, Crawl sees Kaya Scodelario’s Haley and Barry Pepper’s Dave trapped under the crawl space of the family home as the waters start to rise and consume the land. It is a double-edged threat that holds a mirror up to our society, if we ignore the probability of our homes being swept away by rising flood water, then why would react any differently when the creatures come looking for food.
Whereas Jaws is dated in its effects, Crawl takes the horror to a completely different level, it is in the up close and personal detail of the underwater scenes where the film shocks, the brutality of the alligators as they over run the community, and in what is essentially a two-hander with side stories woven into the narrative, the shock value is intensified, it is the observation of the individual battling against the elements and the destructive power and drive of hunger.
Whereas many filmmakers in the past would have glorified in portraying the animal as evil, linking the idea of the intimate with malevolence, it is discarded in Crawl, and it makes the film that much a finer experience for having done so. Opportunistic, instinctive perhaps, but not evil, this is film that sees the greater threat as that caused by humanity, the borders of our civilisation and that of our greed making nature, in any form, fight back.
A decently delivered film, Crawl is a cut above many who aspire to reach the heights laid out by the biggest and the best. Alarming, moments of pure brilliance and decently acted by its two main stars, Crawl has nothing to apologise for as it comes to life.
Ian D. Hall