Supposedly based on a true story, this tale of a woman trapped in her basement as it floods drowns the viewer in impending doom. Unfortunately, a swim through the possibilities is better than the film’s sink to the water logged bottom.
On its surface, I really do appreciate the screenplay and the method with which the film is shot. Other than a handful of expositional flashbacks, our lead is silent. We experience her psychological trauma, her status, and her drive through those wordless minutia of her difficult day. Shown and not told; a respectable and appreciated approach. I think a slightly more focused and intensified narrative to draw her psychological line might have helped the film overall, but I like the spartan approach and the no-fat body of the script.
Where the film loses its buoyancy is in its slow development and its lack of palpable terror. Conceptually we can identify with her plight and her fight, but the drama is lacking in the build to the end; at least on the torturous level that is needed to thrill and hook. There is also a murkiness, within the story by lack of detailed dialogue (for better or worse) and within the cinematography. There is a use of near diegetic lighting in this flooding basement, which has its advantages of believability, but also its downsides of being less-than-clear.
In the end, this is a fight for her survival, which provokes some legitimate questions about what happened in the ‘actual’ events. One wonders, but I always enjoy the less Hollywoodized experience and culmination. Probably wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea and there is an unfortunate lack of developed empathetic connection, but I like the filmmaker’s intent. Not just “Crawl without the ‘gators”, as there is much more on the emotional surface but it lacked the biting chomp of its lizard-filled kin that stirs and satisfies.