Crawl

A competitive swimmer (Kaya Scodelario) keeps alligators at bay in her flooded Florida home, in Alexandra Aja’s stripped-down survival thriller.

Price: $4.99 + taxes and fees

Alexandra Aja’s stripped-down survival thriller stars Kaya Scodelario as Haley Keller, a competitive swimmer whose skill set becomes the only thing keeping her and her injured father (Barry Pepper) from becoming alligator food in their flooded Florida home during a devastating hurricane. Having played with the idea of the “final girl” in his 2003 breakout Haute Tension, Aja knows the horror ropes well, but the refreshing thing about Crawl is how straightforward it is: The stakes are laid out efficiently, the threat is quickly established and the whole thing hangs on Scodelario’s controlled, compelling turn as a young woman whose drive to excel is the one thing that might save her family from an inconceivable threat — or at least keep her from being dragged down without a fight. Bonus points to Aja for casting then-unknown Morfydd Clark as Haley’s sister Kate just months before she broke out at TIFF in Saint Maud and The Personal History of David Copperfield.

NORM WILNER

Content advisory: brutal violence, frightening scenes, coarse language