Crawl
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: July 12, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critics
Positive:
17
Mixed:
14
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
SlateKeith PhippsJul 13, 2019
Crawl’s virtues, however, remain formidable: It’s fast, efficient, crisply directed, and delivers on the promised alligator thrills. In another year, that might be worth a polite nod. This year, however, those B-movie values feel especially refreshing, and illuminating too. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Angelica Jade BastienJul 12, 2019
Crawl is a great example of a simple story exceedingly well-told. It’s a bloody adventure full of teeth-gnawing turns of fortune, mordant wit, vicious gator kills, and surprising tenderness — that clocks in at a blessedly fleet 87 minutes. It’s a perfect horror film for the summer, as much an ode to the cataclysmic, humbling aspects of Mother Nature as it is a love letter to father-daughter relationships. Read full review
80
Paste MagazineCole HenryJul 17, 2019
Crawl is a brilliant ode to the magical realism of Florida and how, when made with craft and care, few movie-going experiences are as good as creature-features in the hottest month of the year. Read full review
80
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoJul 14, 2019
Crawl is a sensationally thrilling aquatic nightmare filled with carnage, bubbling chaos, and all the creature-feature intensity that makes this the summer's must-see horror event. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerJul 16, 2019
It's a simple set-up, it gets straight to the action, there's just enough personal drama to give the audience a good reason to root for the humans, and it's all just top-notch gory fun. Read full review
77
IGNJim VejvodaJul 11, 2019
Crawl is a fun albeit familiar human vs. beast movie, one that gets plenty of mileage out of its setting and people’s deep-set fear of being eaten. Read full review
75
The Film StageMike MazzantiJul 15, 2019
One of Crawl’s greatest joys, however, is how it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Instead, it merely delivers the goods and then cuts to black. No cheeky bullshit, no wink-wink, nudge-nudge, ain’t life so damn cruel all the time? This sincerity is refreshing, like dunking your head in the pool at the height of a blazing summer day. Just check the water first. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJul 12, 2019
In a Hollywood ecosystem obsessed with brands and inoffensive genericism, there is something admirable and fresh about a movie that has nothing on its mind other than delivering 87 minutes’ worth of gory gator-chomping thrills. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedJul 12, 2019
While Crawl never quite achieves the classic status of Jaws, it’s so convincing that you forget about the mechanics and become petrified by the gore. Read full review
68
The VergeJesse HassengerJul 23, 2019
Hit-and-miss horror auteur Alexandre Aja knows how to deliver lean, mean horror action. Crawl is far less tongue-in-cheek than his Piranha remake, but it doesn’t build to a fever pitch or deliver dynamite setpieces. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jul 12, 2019
If any one thing holds back this modest, skillfully made potboiler from true B-movie glory, it’s the human drama. Read full review
67
Consequence of SoundMeagan NavarroJul 11, 2019
This is precisely the type of movie we expect to see at the summer box office; an incessantly entertaining and dangerous adventure that will leave you breathless. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 13, 2019
Crawl is an old-fashioned B-grade monster movie made with 2019 technology. In short, that means plenty of gore and jump-scares to go along with creatures that no longer look like puppets or men in rubber suits. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineSteven ScaifeJul 12, 2019
The film is more straight-faced than Alexandre Aja’s prior work, trading absurd kills for narrow escapes from gaping alligator jaws. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 12, 2019
A grim yet snappy little thriller. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comTomris LafflyJul 12, 2019
Crawl has a reptilian bite in its nods to the tradition of underwater monster flicks. It’s certainly not “Jaws” (what is?), or even “The Shallows,” but sloshing around the hazardous deluge of a Southwest Florida town on the brink of devastation by a Category 5 hurricane comes with its own kicks. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 11, 2019
The entertainment value in a straight-up genre picture like this is how fraught each new corner of peril that they turn manages to be. And there’s plenty of that. And damned if Aja and his cast find some actual emotion in all this, too. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeySep 2, 2019
Only when it reaches for all-out camp does this script truly tickle the pleasure receptors. Read full review
60
Total FilmMatt GlasbyAug 22, 2019
Aja brings an exciting if less- than-watertight script to life with a minimum of fuss, plenty of flair and just a few eye-rolls. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeJul 12, 2019
It’s a direct, nasty, entirely unpretentious B-movie and while this remains faint, faint, faint praise given the state of the genre, it’s one of the year’s sturdiest horror films. I wouldn’t exactly urge you to run rather then crawl to see it, but a brisk walk should do. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJul 12, 2019
A horror movie that should have been a lot more fun. Read full review
60
Film ThreatAlex SavelievJul 12, 2019
Scodelario carries the film with an energetic, no-holds-barred performance. She’s in almost every shot, planning out escapes and outwitting the reptiles, and she gives it her all. Read full review
60
Rolling StoneDavid FearJul 12, 2019
Like the apex predators slithering at the center of it all, it gets the job done once it lets is more brutal, primal instincts take over. Bon Appétit. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJul 11, 2019
Accepting the film's own standard of plausibility, thrillseekers should appreciate the brisk pace with which scares, setbacks and possible escapes are delivered. Read full review
58
IndieWireEric KohnJul 12, 2019
As much as the suspense remains in play, its main threat has a certain robotic quality, and the humorless tone doesn’t help. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisJul 12, 2019
A smoothly efficient popcorn picture...Though Scodelario is spunky and game in what must have been an extremely uncomfortable shoot, the script (by the brothers Michael and Shawn Rasmussen) is airless and repetitive. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayJul 11, 2019
Crawl is action-packed, with impressive special effects and some jaw-dropping images of mayhem and destruction. But a movie like this demands more storytelling discipline and logistical control than these filmmakers can manage. Read full review
48
TheWrapMichael NordineJul 12, 2019
The single-minded simplicity of its plotting can at times be an asset rather than a hindrance; in a summer even more bogged down by needless sequels and remakes than most, Crawl is, at the very least, a lean thriller that isn’t based on an existing property. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Simran HansAug 25, 2019
The scenes of family bonding are tiresome but the action is mostly tense and cheerfully bloody. Read full review
40
EmpireJames WhiteAug 20, 2019
As a mindless summer horror diversion, Crawl is watchable if rarely all that thrilling. The movie’s far from toothless, yet often substitutes easy scares for any real substance, and suffers for that. Read full review
40
VarietyOwen GleibermanJul 11, 2019
Crawl has no pretense and not very much range; it’s “Jaws” set in an old dark house. Read full review
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