Paramount has a new disaster horror flick in Crawl out now in theaters. When Haley (Kaya Scodelario) returns to her hometown to check on her father Dave (Barry Pepper) in the middle of a hurricane she soon finds herself & her father not only threatened by the ever increasing dangers of the storm, but also a growing horde of alligators.

Crawl is a 2019 disaster horror film it is produced by Ghost House Pictures and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is currently in theaters.

Editor’s Note: Near complete to complete spoilers for Crawl are present within this review. 

Crawl is a bit of an odd case, usually when you put it on upon yourself of seeing an animal based horror film the general consensus is to not expect much. However, I left the theater this afternoon being more than satisfied and fairly entertained upon my viewing of Crawl. With excellently paced moments of intensity and genuine horror, Crawl should definitely be on horror fans’ watch list in some form or fashion.

THE GOOD: In Crawl college swimmer Haley returns to her Florida hometown to check on her dad in the middle of an upcoming hurricane after he doesn’t pick up her nor her sister’s calls. Initially believing he evacuated Haley goes to her father’s new home as well as her childhood home to check on him. After finding the family dog, she comes to realize that he’s still in the area and soon finds him in their basement unconscious with a mysterious huge bite mark. As Haley attempts to rescue Dave, she’s soon attacked by an enormous alligator injuring her leg after the scuffle. Sometime later after struggling to survive Haley discovers a gator nest with eggs in her basement and a swarm of them invade the house and the town killing several people including a cop that’s a former classmate of Haley and her sister, as well as his partner. With the rather rising Dave and Haley manage to kill some of the alligators and reach the top of their home with a rescue chopper picking them up.

It’s honestly been quite awhile since I’ve seen a mainstream R-rated horror film be true to it’s rating and Crawl is definitely in that category. When I go into an R-rated horror film I expect to see some tense scenes and solid terror and I’m happy to see Crawl deliver in both aspects. Packed with gore, scenes featuring decapitation, and bones snapping Crawl isn’t afraid of going to places it’s rating allows it to. If you initially thought of Crawl as nothing more than a popcorn flick I wouldn’t blame you, but acting performances in addition to the above mentioned gives Crawl a step up to some recently released films within it’s genre.

THE BAD: If there’s any sort of complaint that I can give for Crawl it’s that the joy ride is over before you know it with an less than hour and a half run time.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: While Crawl may not be the grand revival of the R-rated horror genre, as many others have pointed out it could be the foundation of a new horror trend known as “disaster horror”. And if the quality of these would be future films are half as good as Crawl, as an avid horror fan I welcome the genre with open arms. Otaku Dome gives Crawl an 80 out of 100.