Crawl (2019) movie review:
I was not sure if I was going to post a review for this movie but after over a month of anticipation (since it came out on DVD a month before being available on Redbox) I feel this is warranted.
At its core, Crawl is the story of Haley (a young college swimmer) who, while in Florida on a swim meet goes to locate her estranged father. Because the city is about to be hit with a hurricane.
She finds him working at their old house. But he has a broken leg and a massive gash in his shoulder. Why? Because there’s a PAIR of gators living under the house (spoilers: they’re apparently protecting a nest.)
This is where the drama comes in.
Haley is a strong, determined, teen athlete who was raised by her father to become an Olympic level swimmer.
After she went to college her parents got a divorce. This lead to her avoiding her childhood home and having not spoken to her father in over a year.
When she enters the house she finds evidence of anti-depressants as well as copious amounts of alcohol. The family dog leads her to the crawlspace which can only be accessed via a ladder.
Of course, her father Dave (played by the amazing Barry Pepper) says “I don’t need your help.” Since obviously, he would want his daughter to evacuate the city while it was still safe to do so.
But Haley would not leave without her father. Throughout the movie, she tried to figure out ways to get him out without use of the ladder. And things go from bad to worse; the crawlspace floods, Haley gets out of the house and has to break the kitchen floor with an ax to retrieve her father’s unconscious body.
He seems dead but with the power of love, CPR and a kiss from the family dog, Dave manages top wake up.
The thing about Dave is, he is a
-divorced father of 2
-who works in construction.
-and for whatever reason, he was obsessed with Haley’s swimming career.
Yet somehow he is able to fix his broken leg using only his tools and later he is able to tourniquet his shoulder when his arm gets ripped off.
I feel like he had more of a powerful backstory (former athlete? former soldier?) that was left out in favor of giving Haley more of a heroic role.
But the most powerful fact remains; Dave could have commit suicide. There were plenty of times when the father/daughter pair were separated. Being a depressed, recently divorced man with no contact with family, he could have removed himself from the equation (after all he still had his toolbox.) If he was gone, his precious daughter would have no reason to risk her life.
But she’d also have no reason to fight.
This idea inspired my recent ‘fathers and daughters’ series. I really enjoy and appreciate the idea of someone becoming inspired by love, faith, and inner strength.
Love, Raven Miller: an all-new Creepypasta
Or overall, I give Crawl (2019) a 4/5- I just wish Dave had more backstory.
so I gave him some, myself.
🙂
ch1: Trials of Adam, an all-new creepypasta