Hurricanes and alligators make for a deadly combination in the new trailer for Crawl, the upcoming collaboration between producer Sam Raimi and director Alexandre Aja.
Like Piranha 3D before it, Aja’s next feature could make a few filmgoers anxious about going back into the water. But while the 2010 horror-comedy reveled in the silliness of its premise, Crawl plays it a little straighter. Mind you, from the look of things, the movie still doesn’t take itself all that seriously. Put it this way: the final line of the trailer is Maze Runner actress Kaya Scodelario calling the alligator a “son of a bitch.” From that moment alone, you can probably work out the tone they’re going for.
Scodelario’s character Haley Keller encounters the reptile in the midst of a Category 5 hurricane. “Grab your families, your loved ones and get out,” a public official ominously advises in the trailer’s opening moments. “We won’t be able to come for you.” Following this guidance, the young woman visits her dad’s house, where she finds that her father Dave, played by Barry Pepper, has run into some trouble with the local wildlife.
Haley’s mission to rescue her father becomes a struggle between man and beast, the latter of which seems pretty hungry for human blood. Somehow, a dog also gets mixed up in the conflict, though the poor little canine gets distressingly little screen time in the new trailer.
While Aja’s films rarely fare well with the critics, there’s surely an audience out there for this kind of claustrophobic carnage. Raimi, meanwhile, generally has a better track record as a director than as a producer, though his last film, Don’t Breathe, was certainly one exception. In any case, we’ll find out if Haley and Dave are leaving this house in one piece when Crawl hits theaters on July 12th.