Intense, Suspenseful and Gory To say that Crawl would be like The Meg, Jaws would be an understatement. The setting of the place, the environment, the performances of Kaya Scodelrio and Barry Pepper and the ever threats of alligators makes it uncomfortably frightening.
The intensity is real because the threats and horrors that hurricane can unleashed on the land. You''d think it's only the rain, and wind. Add alligators who want nothing more than meat, it gets more thrilling and suspenseful. Add the fact that most of the movie happened in the crawlspace gives a sense of claustrophobia. the ever sense of being watched and attacked by the alligators with the rising water gives a sense of dread and hopelessness. You move and you are attacked. Help is completely out of reach, making it a hide and seek game with the gators.
Among the things that made me like this movie is the environment. Imagine you are trapped in a hurricane place. The winds are strong, the rain is pouring and the ever rising floods are swimming with gators. In a claustrophobic crawlspace, you are cornered. The gore, jump scares are well place and emotionally justified with the atmosphere of dread and suspense. The performances too, were exceptional and made me believed that they are really experiencing the situation of their character. CGI is well used and good. The pacing too is good, though I feel at 87 minutes it is kind of short, and there could have been scenarios to lengthen the run time and fully take advantage of the premise. That's the criticism of Crawl.
Overall, the suspense, the hurricane, the floods and the family drama (for character development?) made the movie good. The atmosphere of suspense and desperation just to get out drives this movie forward.