Recent years have given us plenty of shark movies, with The Meg, The Shallows, and 47 Meters Down among the best of them (and most of the worst involving a tornado or two). Now director Alexandre Aja wants to convince you that it`s time for another aquatic creature to take the spotlight. His latest feature, Crawl, contends that you don`t even have to leave your house to get brutally attacked by a giant alligator.An opening scene featuring a swimming competition introduces us to Haley (Kaya Scodelario) and establishes her natural gift for aquatic activities, as well as her dad`s (Barry Pepper) tendency to coach her with weirdly specific pep talks. According to her father, Haley is an `apex predator.` But unfortunately for her, the film`s title is not `Swim,` and she quickly comes face-to-face with an actual apex predator. The results are exactly what you want from this movie: gnarly, thrilling, alligator-munching horror.Turns out, a massive hurricane is about to hit Haley`s hometown in Florida. Neither she nor her sister has heard from their now-estranged father, so Haley sets out to look for him at her childhood lakehouse. Of course, she gets trapped in the house--oh, and she`s greeted by two huge alligators that have taken up residence in the flooded basement.Alexandre Aja`s experience directing Piranha 3D and High Tension comes fully into play in Crawl. His nearly unmatched proclivity for brutal violence and gnarly visuals, mixed with producer Sam Raimi`s eye for combining horror with light-hearted fun, make for the perfect summertime aquatic creature feature. Crawl is both highly entertaining and also pretty nasty. Though the scares get a bit predictable at times, Aja manages to find inventive and new ways to use the alligators` mighty and raw power for maximum adrenaline-pumping and blood-splattering thrills. These guys don`t just bite and then hide--they maim, twist, and even decapitate.As you can expect, most of the movie takes place in the basement, as th ...
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