There are few things in life I enjoy more than a good creature feature. From Jaws to Deep Blue Sea, The Shallows, and The Reef, sharks have dominated our waters for many years now (though I also have a soft spot for the ludicrous Anaconda). Alligators haven’t really had a look in since the brilliant Lake Placid and its many sequels of vastly diminishing returns, but they’re truly terrifying creatures in their own right and should occupy a bigger space in the horror pantheon. Happily, the scaly beauts are set to make a comeback in Crawl, the skin-crawling trailer for which you can watch below.
From horror maestro Alexandre Aja, who’s already tackled underwater beasties with Piranha 3D, but is perhaps more well known for High Tension, Horns, and the fan favorite Hills Have Eyes remake, and producer Sam Raimi (annoyingly referred to in the trailer as “the producer of Evil Dead” — as in, the remake instead of his own bloody movie on which it’s based — rather than, eh, MFing SAM RAIMI, as he should be known), the flick stars Kaya Scodelario, of iconic Brit teen show Skins and character actor Barry Pepper, as two souls trapped in a flooded house swarming with hungry gators.
The action is set, naturally, in Florida, home of the gators, where a hurricane has hit leaving Scodelario’s no-nonsense heroine to fight against the elements in her water-logged home while also trying to save her injured father, who’s hiding in their crawlspace. As the water levels rise, the duo realizes they’re basically sitting ducks for a load of hungry predators. In their own home. Aja killed it with Piranha 3D, but Crawl is clearly a more serious affair and the trailer is loaded with suspense and well-timed frights. It looks like it gets proper gory, too, which is always nice to see in a creature feature.
Raimi’s influence will be keenly felt too and, judging by the initial footage, the gators themselves look pretty spiffy so the most important bases are (hopefully) covered. Still, regardless, this just jumped to the top of my must watch list. Alligators? Effy from Skins? Alexandre Aja and Sam Raimi? Pfft. Sign me right up.
Crawl, er, crawls into U.S. theaters July 12, 2019. U.K. audiences have to wait until August 9. Boo.
