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Crawl

5/10

Stars: Kaya Scodelario, Barry Pepper

Director: Alexandre Aja

Searching for her father (Pepper), whose wife has left him, as the eye of Hurricane Wendy engulfs the Florida coastline, champion swimmer Haley (British actress Scodelario of Maze Runner fame) finds him injured in the rambling basement of their soon-to-be-sold house, with floodwaters rising rapidly.

But that's not all: the whole area is alive with giant alligators. And, drawn by blood, they soon locate Haley and Daddy in the now-watery basement area.

Can they survive? 'We're gonna beat these pea-brained lizard shits,' growls Daddy, just as as he and Haley get mauled by one. It looks bleak, as would-be rescuers are devoured by the 'pea-brained lizards'.

This is, as you'd imagine, good for gasps and giggles alike. The performances are just fine, hers especially, but the script is poor and scenes of alligators eating people are by and large unconvincing.

Scodelario, bitten in both leg and arm, shows little signs of either in some scenes thereafter, and could surely not swim as fast as she does with such injuries, let alone clamber around with such agility. Still, it's fast and furious and fairly short. What more could late-night scare fiends ask for?

David Quinlan

USA 2019. UK Distributor: Paramount. Colour by deluxe.
82 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.

Review date: 31 Dec 2019

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