Crawl (2019)

Directed by: Alexandre Aja | 87 minutes | action, drama | Actors: Kaya Scodelario, Barry Pepper, Morfydd Clark, Ross Anderson, Jose Palma, George Somner, Anson Boon, Ami Metcalf, Tina Pribicevic, Srna Vasiljevic, Cso-Cso, Colin McFarlane, Annamaria Serda, Savannah Steyn

Alexandre Aja is a fascinating cinematographer. The Frenchman broke through in 2003 with the hard hitting ‘Haute Tension’ that put him on the map as a horror director in his home country. Three years later he broke through internationally with his remake of ‘The Hills Have Eyes’. Aja showed that she uses her own visual language and that she does not shy away from brute force. His retelling of Wes Craven’s cult hit hit the box office and Aja’s star has been rising ever since. After the mediocre ‘Mirrors’, the director decided to take a different tack and not watch depressing horror films full of melancholy characters for a while. In 2010 the equally corny and hilarious ‘Piranha 3D’ followed, which showed that raunchy horror comedies were also devoted to the French.

You would think that the director continued down the same path, because this brought him a lot of fame and money. However, Aja decided to go his own way and opt for a different kind of film. Enter ‘Horns’ from 2013. Putting Joe Hill’s complex novel into film form was very ambitious. Aja came a long way, but in the end his book adaptation turned out to be too flat. He did give Daniel ‘Harry Potter’ Radcliffe his most beautiful role ever. Despite the somewhat lackluster reception of ‘Horns’, Aja did not let herself be stopped from filming another book.

This time he adapted a novel by Liz Jensen. Unfortunately for Aja, his ‘The 9th Life of Louis Drax’ was a huge flop. Perhaps that was the reason why the director again ventured into an ‘old-fashioned’ horror film. With success, because ‘Crawl’ did well at the box office. This genre film hits all the right chords. The story: A daughter estranged from her father decided to visit Pal when he stopped answering his phone. It turns out that Dad is trapped in the basement of his house and threatened by crocodiles. While his daughter tries to help him, the area is ravaged by a hurricane as well as hungry reptiles.

Aja skillfully builds up the tension. As if the violence of nature isn’t severe enough, he’s taking it up a notch with the arrival of the crocodiles. While the story isn’t remarkable, Aja still manages to keep it interesting. That depends on the casting. Kaya Scodelario is an appealing heroine and creates an empathetic character. Her bond with film father Barry Pepper comes across as genuine. The game of these two is strong. In short: ‘Crawl’ is a must for Aja fans and horror fanatics.