Reptilian Jaws

Like most people, I first heard of the name Alexandre Aja when I saw his excellent breakthrough stalker-slasher horror film ‘Haute Tension’ (‘High Tension’) back in 2003.  Although the French director went on to helm a few more genre films like ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ (2006 remake of Wes Craven’s 1977 original) and ‘Mirrors’ (2008), both of which were decent if unspectacular, he’s pretty much gone off the radar and I’ve all but forgotten about him.

 

Until now, that is.  Aja’s latest directorial effort, ‘Crawl,’ is an old-school “natural” creature feature in the tradition of ‘Jaws,’ ‘Piranha,’  ‘Anaconda,’ ‘Lake Placid’ and ‘Sharknado’ (okay, maybe not so much that one).  To put it simply, ‘Crawl’ is ‘Jaws’ with alligators in the starring role.  University of Florida (Go “Gators”!) competitive swimmer Haley (Kaya Scodelario) becomes worried about her divorced dad (Barry Pepper of ‘Saving Private Ryan’) when a category 5 hurricane hits her home town of Coral Lake.  Unable to reach him by phone, she decided to brave the storms and go home because she suspects something bad has happened, and sure enough found him gravely injured and trapped underneath the house surrounded by hungry hungry hippos, I mean alligators. With the flood waters rising as the hurricane rages on, Haley will need to draw upon every ounce of all her courage, wits, resourcefulness and well-honed competitive swimming skills to keep herself and dad from becoming alligator lunch.

 

‘Crawl’ is an immensely entertaining, smart and tightly wound thriller in the best traditions of those aforementioned movies.  Its 84 percent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes was no accident, and its simple father-daughter raw survival tale lends it a sympathetic human touch.  With a strong female heroine, ‘Crawl’ also bears comparison to the excellent 2016 film ‘The Shallows’ starring Blake Lively as a bikini-clad co-ed whose surfing excursion at a secluded beach was rudely interrupted by a great white shark.

Grade: A