Horror fans have never exactly been short on options, with the relatively low costs associated with the genre meaning that it can often turn out to be a hugely profitable method of filmmaking. Whether it be a major theatrical release or one of the countless straight-to-video slashers made for virtually no money at all, there will always be something available to keep people occupied if they’re looking for something to scratch that particular itch.
One of the downsides though is that with so many horror movies flooding the market each year, plenty of them fall through the cracks and quickly end up being forgotten about completely, no matter how great they are. One such title is last year’s Crawl, which turned out to be one of the most enjoyable and entertaining genre entries before fading from memory once it disappeared from theaters. But now 2019’s most underrated horror flick is available to stream on Amazon Prime.
Directed by The Hills Have Eyes and the Piranha remake’s Alexandre Aja, Crawl puts a disaster movie spin on a well-worn formula by taking place during a flood caused by a hurricane and using alligators as the villains of the piece, as an aspiring swimmer desperately tries to rescue her father from the crawl space in his basement.
While that does admittedly sound ridiculous, Crawl proudly wears these B-movie inspirations on its sleeve and is a whole lot better than the synopsis would have you believe, and the visual effects used to bring the murderous alligators to life are surprisingly convincing for a movie armed with a budget of just $13.5 million. Throw in some classic staples from the horror, disaster, thriller and action genres along with two great lead performances from Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper, and you’ll find there are a lot worse ways to whittle away 87 minutes.
