There was a point sometime in the past year (I don’t even remember anymore) where director Quentin Tarantino shared his favorite movie of 2019. For whatever reason, he has become a curator of tastes, and everyone wants to know what he has to say. While I guarantee that John Waters will always have more substantial picks, Tarantino’s endorsement always gives you a reason to step back and wonder just what he was thinking when watching these movies. I remember wanting to track down Battle Royale (2000). It felt like he legitimized The Lone Ranger (2013) when he said that it had one of the best train sequences in history.
Which made it interesting to try and figure out why Crawl (2019) of all movies was his top pick. Was it some payback for Alexandre Aja, or did he genuinely love this movie? Given the Oscar-winning director’s penchant for genre cinema, it made total sense. Once again I found myself feeling influenced to go and seek it out. Where it sounded like a bad gore-fest monster movie in the advertisements, there was reason to believe that it was going to be good. Given that my friend Emily of the Go! Go! Godzilla podcast claimed it was among her favorite movies, I found that it had a sticking power that made it more appealing. By the time that it landed on Hulu, I felt like a decent throwaway experience, especially during my horror-filled queue of titles this October.
I return from that experience to admit something that always delights me: it’s quite possibly a perfect monster movie. Oh sure, it’s not as deftly executed as Jaws (1975), but it understands the genre so well and uses escalating stakes to convey its story. The viewer is put more and more on edge as the time continues on. I’d even go so far as to argue that Aja’s understanding of character dynamics adds an emotional subtext that makes you appreciate what good horror can do. It makes you feel like you’re there in that moment, having to solve problems with nothing by trick movements. In some respects, this is a ridiculous movie. However, it takes it seriously enough that I found myself sucked up in every last frame, believing that I was in the hands of a master.
To be honest, I wouldn’t consider Aja a master. I had been suckered into seeing Piranha 3D (2010) in theaters and while I can call it entertaining and campy, it wasn’t for me. While I hold nothing against the rest of his filmography, I just never had the interest to see them. Maybe Horns (2013) captured my interest for five minutes, but I didn’t act on it the way that I did for Crawl. There was no incentive. I had no thoughts of Aja other than that he did horror movies that had excellent hooks. Now, I’m kind of hoping the good buzz can keep going because what he does here is astounding.
Again, I’m not putting it up for “Movie of the Year,” but there was this strange confidence that I built within the first 20 minutes. As someone who likes a good monster movie, I know to be hesitant to diving head-first in (no pun intended here). However, I knew right away that Aja was doing his homework. He knew that to make the stakes hold any meaning, we’d first have to care about the protagonists: Dave and daughter Haley. Haley is on the swim team and is pushed to be an “apex predator” by Dave her whole life. They argue because of how similar they are, and it forms a convincing dynamic. When a storm comes rolling into town, Haley must find Dave and get him out of the harsh Florida weather.
I understand that I am thinking of this film from a limited sample size, but I haven’t found a horror movie in recent times that has used plausibility this effectively in something so pulpy. I have never lived in Florida, but having watched the news I am aware of how serious hurricane season is. There’s a fear of alligators at every turn, and when you combine them all you have room for a cheap thrills experience. Aja looks at that and chooses to ask what happens if you treated it seriously, making the melodrama feel as real and important as their survival. Because of this, he has created, without a doubt, one of the greatest alligator-based horror movies (at least of the 21st century).
I find it in Haley’s character, who is caring but has understandable disagreements with Dave. He doesn’t charge his phone and often goes missing. Her struggles to even make contact with him takes the viewer through excellent set design. Rain’s pouring down, the wind is eviscerating everything in its path. You buy into the dread that’s about to come and these are subliminal ways that Aja puts you on edge. You’re already wondering if Dave is safe. Even if you know that this is an alligator movie, there is this concern that something will go wrong, and the best that can be said is that he’s got you thinking about everything far in advance. The set-up in this doesn’t overshadow the story but fills the viewer with enough concern.
For instance, Haley walks through Dave’s house and discovers small signs of an intrusion. The garage is propped open. Dave is in the basement with a small injury. One has to wonder what is even going on. Given that Aja has enough cleverness to include a comic animal sidekick in a lovable dog, there is already this rich personality in the cinematography that makes the innocence clashing with the darkness in meaningful ways. Again, the peril is building like the rain outside, constantly making the viewer wonder when the horror is going to snap into place. When it shows up, it does with such brute force, presenting an alligator chasing them through a crawl space, doing everything to escape onto dry land. But even then, are they safe?
The claustrophobia is insatiable here. Below them is a ticking time bomb of an alligator who only needs the water level to rise to catch up to them. Outside is a debilitating rainstorm that makes simple escape by a truck very difficult. The small dry space won’t last forever and sends everyone to their wits. They need to escape quickly, but without any reliable devices, they have to work twice as hard. Aja has done enough to build empathy towards these characters that you want them to survive. Sure they may get an occasional scrape, but they need to make it to the end of the picture.
I remember a conversation from years ago now where my friend gave me an enlightening/horrifying revelation. If you were to be attacked by any sea animal, you stood a better chance of surviving with a shark. They would initially attack, but you had a chance of escape. Next to a hippo, an alligator had something even more terrible: grasp. The chances of those suckers letting you go were much more difficult. They would be forceful, and it’s something I thought about while watching this, feeling a small discomfort in the idea of even getting close to one. If anything, the slow revelation that Florida has more than one alligator looming around its shores only ratchets up the tension in the plot so much more.
This is a story that uses its plot with economy very well. While there may be more elaborate and complex stories out there, the concept of life or death fuels this narrative in such a way that you’re left with concern. If the alligators don’t, maybe the storm or starvation will get you. There’s no end in sight until you can find that sanctuary. This noble story of selflessness gets more wrinkles as the father-daughter conversations turn towards personal insecurity, the fears of not being good enough. When Dave tells Haley that he trained her to be a winner so that she could survive, there’s a perverse beauty in it. More than anything, this works because it’s a character drama hidden inside the action, realizing that this has been a story of bonding the entire time.
To come back to a point I made initially, I believe that this movie is great because of something that may have been implicitly inside Tarantino when he watched it. Everyone knows his love for a good genre movie. He even made an homage to it in Grindhouse (2007) that is an interesting cavalcade of ideas. However, I think what he’s latching onto is the dynamic of a father sacrificing himself to better his daughter’s life. Even if it’s a stretch, it’s easy to believe that he sees himself in Dave, proudly watching as Haley swims across a dangerous pool of alligators to retrieve a boat. Danger lurks underneath her, the camera sometimes submerging in the queasiness below. Still, it’s a culmination of themes and ideas explored throughout the story that makes it all the more triumphant.
What this movie lacks in terms of incredible plot is made up for in terms of the overall effort. You’re buying into the atmosphere, feeling the rain overwhelming the scenery, and sending danger closer to you. It may at times have that B-Movie intensity, but it does so with a little more heart and focus, knowing that we need to build to these moments in meaningful ways. Not only that but because of its 88-minute running time, it knows how to stay in constant motion, throwing ideas at you for only as long as they’re needed.
Depending on how much you love monster movies, this movie will range from a decent experience to something illuminating. I come somewhere near the latter half. It’s a horror movie that has compassion even when it’s so rooted in fear and dread. There is a reason to care about everything that happens, and these are real characters. While I worry that this will be yet another Aja property that gets turned into a lackluster franchise (remember Piranha 3DD (2012)?), it at least is one that started with the best intentions, of capturing the nauseating Florida weather and turning it into a plausible horror movie. The subliminal concern earns every minute, even if it’s at times over the top and ridiculous in concept.
The fact that Aja makes us buy into every frame is a miracle. I wouldn’t call this my favorite movie of 2019, but I’m glad that there are people out there willing to boost its reputation and giving people like me something new and worthwhile to watch during October. Usually, this month is filled with junky throwaways that get by on bland gore, and I’m relieved to see one that’s more psychological, asking you to place yourself into the scenario and understand how this applies to you. It’s a perfectly paced monster movie, and I’m thankful to have one of these around if just to keep things interesting.
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