Most movies about amphibious predators involve sharks and follow the Jaws model. 2019’s Crawl goes for something more claustrophobic than the 1975 classic and also uses alligators as the killer critters.

Florida State University student/competitive swimmer Haley Keller (Kaya Scodelario) goes through an estrangement from her father Dave (Barry Pepper). Dave became overly invested in Haley’s career as an athlete, and Haley blames the end of her parents’ marriage on his preoccupation with her competitions.

When a hurricane bears down on Florida, Haley’s sister Beth (Moryfydd Clark) grows concerned because she can’t reach Dave. Because Beth now lives in Boston, she can’t check on Dave herself, so Haley does so.

Florida police try to prevent Haley’s visit because Dave’s house lies right in the storm’s path, but she ignores these orders and tracks him down anyway. When she locates her dad, Dave resides in a house’s crawlspace and he contends with various debilitating injuries.

Dave had to deal with unwelcome visitors: alligators who escaped from a nearby farm. Now Haley needs to save her father and contend with the toothy reptiles, a task made even more challenging by the violent storm that rages around them.

Films of this sort can go down the fairly serious “real-world” path of Jaws or the more outrageous semi-fantasy theme of flicks such as The Meg. Based on ads, you might think Crawl shoots for camp, but instead, it embraces a more somber horror vibe.

Unfortunately, it fails to find even the slightest hint of drama or suspense. As noted, it presents a more tightly-packed tale than something like Jaws, as Crawl spends the vast majority of its time inside the lower domains of the Keller home.

This seems like a good twist, as the way the gators entrap Haley and Dave eliminates some of the usual “outs” available in this kind of story. With horror movies, the audience needs to understand why the characters can’t escape the menace, and it can be difficult to find logical reasons.

In that vein, Crawl works. A few tidbits feel contrived, but the manner in which the film traps Haley and Dave in the crawlspace largely makes sense and prevents the potential for audience disengagement.

Beyond a good basic premise, though, Crawl falters, mainly because it lacks much real tension. We don’t know much about Haley or Dave past the rudiments, and the film fails to get us to care about them in more than a generic manner.

The biggest issue comes from the lack of real development or terror. Crawl usually relies on simple “jump scares”, as the gators suddenly pop up to attack.

These jolts don’t ever work, and they get tiresome as they go. We view the gators as a menace but not one that the filmmakers utilize in a creative or dynamic manner.

Inevitably, a story like this requires some suspension of disbelief, but Crawl pushes credulity too far. Eventually events provoke more viewer eye-rolling than screams, and that becomes a big problem in a movie that wants to terrify.

Which remains the largest issue with Crawl: it’s never scary or tense or exciting. Even at a mere 87 minutes, it feels overly long and it never achieves its genre goals.

Crawl appears in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. A native 4K product, the Dolby Vision image offered a stellar presentation.

Sharpness excelled. Even in the movie’s many dimly lit shots, delineation remained tight and precise.

The image lacked shimmering or jagged edges, and edge haloes failed to mar the presentation. I also didn’t see any print flaws.

Hello, orange and teal! Crawl emphasized the modern palette, and the results seemed fine.

The colors didn’t overcome their stylistic restrictions, but they appeared appropriate. HDR gave the hues added oomph but didn’t make them cartoony, thankfully.

Blacks were deep and dark, while shadows seemed smooth and clear. Whites and contrast got a nice boost from HDR. The movie gave us a simply splendid transfer.

I also felt pleased with the immersive DTS-HD MA 7.1 soundtrack of Crawl, as the audio accentuated the visuals well. It mixed creepy atmosphere with a mix of jolts and “assault moments” from the rear.

In the front, the track showed good stereo music and presented various elements in a logical and natural manner. The elements blended neatly and created a seamless sense of the environment. From the back, thunder/rain and aggressive violent components added kick to the proceedings and made the mix more involving.

Audio quality seemed positive. Dialogue consistently appeared natural and crisp, with no edginess or intelligibility issues on display.

Music was clear and dynamic. The score seemed broadly reproduced and complemented the mix nicely.

Effects always were distinctive and concise, and the mix boasted fine clarity for the louder moments. Bass response always seemed rich and firm. This became a pretty terrific track.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the Blu-ray version? Both came with identical DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio.

As for the native 4K Dolby vision image, it delivered a marked improvement over the already appealing Blu-ray. The 4K looked sharper and more vivid, so expect an obvious upgrade from the top notch 4K.

The 4K replicates the Blu-ray’s extras. We find a few featurettes, and we open with Beneath Crawl.

It fills 28 minutes, five seconds with notes from director Alexandre Aja, producers Craig Flores and Sam Raimi, screenwriters Shawn Rasmussen and Michael Rasmussen, production designer Alan Gilmore, special effects supervisor Gareth Wingrove, director of photography Maxim Alexandre, and actors Barry Pepper and Kaya Scodelario.

“Beneath” looks at how Aja came to the project, story/characters/screenplay, cast and performances, sets and locations, photography and effects. This becomes a fairly useful overview of different production areas.

Next comes Category 5 Gators, an 11-minute, 36-second reel with Alexandre Aja, Raimi, Flores, visual effects supervisors Thomas Montminy-Brodeur and Keith Kolder, CG supervisor Laurent Pancaccini, makeup effects designer Adrien Morot, and compositing supervisor Stephane Rioux.

“Gators” focuses on visual effects, with an emphasis on the movie’s reptilian predators as well as damage done to humans. It gives us a satisfying exploration of these subjects.

Finally, Alligator Attacks goes for one minute, 32 seconds. It simply offers a bloody compilation of violent amphibian assaults.

Presented as a “motion comic”, an Alternate Opening lasts four minutes, 49 seconds. This sets up the premise of storm-related alligator attacks.

On its own, it creates a decent opening to the film, and it gets to violent action quicker than the released movie does. However, it focuses on characters we never see again, so it feels disconnected from Crawl and superfluous.

A 25-second intro from Alexandre Aja just tells us we’re going to see an alternate opening. It’s painless but worthless.

Three Deleted/Extended Scenes fill a total of five minutes, 58 seconds. We find “I Guess I’m Off the Team” (0:44), “You Were Never Going to Evacuate” (2:21) and “Don’t Quit on Me” (2:53).

All three concentrate on some character moments. None of them seem especially compelling, though “Evacuate” gives a little more info about family dynamics.

Potentially an exciting twist on the animal attack genre, Crawl doesn’t turn into anything special. Even at a brief 87 minutes, the movie seems slow and uncompelling. The 4K UHD brings strong picture and audio along with a decent set of supplements. Crawl fails to muster tension or thrills, but this 4K brings the ideal home video version of the movie.

Note that this Crawl 4K can be purchased on its own or as part of a five-movie "Paramount Scares” box. That package also includes 4K UHD releases for Rosemary’s Baby, Pet Sematary (1989), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Smile (2022).

The package provides a special edition of Fangoria magazine along with some movie-related stickers. Also note that as of October 2023, the Sweeney Todd 4K is exclusive to the “Paramount Scares” box. The other four movies can be purchased on 4K individually.

To rate this film, visit the prior review of CRAWL