Crawlers - Angriff der Killerwürmer

I had never heard about this 2022 horror movie titled "It Crawls Beneath" (aka "They Crawl Beneath") before stumbling upon it by random chance. So I had literally no idea what I was in for here, but the synopsis for the movie sounded interesting enough. And actually with it being a horror movie, then of course I had to watch the movie.

While the concept idea behind "It Crawls Beneath" was interesting and had potential, then writer Tricia Aurand only managed to put together a script and storyline that was subpar. Sure, "It Crawls Beneath" was watchable enough for what it was, but this movie just simply didn't bring much of anything to the table. And I have to say that the narrative in the movie was too mundane, slow paced and there just simply wasn't enough of anything interesting happening to keep 88 minutes of the movie entertaining.

The acting performances in the movie were fair enough, but the actors and actresses literally had a very little to work with in terms of a properly constructed storyline, interesting characters or riveting dialogue. The only familiar face on the screen here was Michael Paré.

Visually then "It Crawls Beneath" sort of felt like something that had crawled out of the late 1980s or early 1990s, pun intended here. The special effects, while suitable enough for this particular slow paced and uneventful movie, just didn't feel like something grand or spectacular, and definitely didn't feel like something at the top of what effects are like in 2022.

I managed to sit through director Dale Fabrigar's horror movie here, but I wasn't particularly entertained. This is not a horror movie that I would recommend for horror aficionados, nor is it a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time.

My rating of "It Crawls Beneath" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

Bad writing, bad acting, bad sound mixing. I think the worst part was the main character being trapped under a car for about 20 minutes of the movie. That was just dumb writing, maybe it was the only way they could fit in a monologue for the main character? Yeah, skip this.

The writing really tried to add some depth to this but all of the character plots given were just cliche or boring. What about the monsters? Confined to one location making things even more uneventful and boring. The pace was slow, I skipped through swaths of it just to get to something of actual interest so least to say I watched a good 30 minutes of this movie and that was still more than enough.

Very low budget, so one has to evaluate it based on what they did on a low budget. Practical effects, and having most of the movie take place in one area saves money. The acting wasn't great, nor was it as if random people were hired who never did any acting before, so most of it was not mere reading a script. The Danny character is a bit of a puzzle. When he finally gets a phone call, on a phone that is at very low battery level, he decides to go off on a tangent rather then making sure he gets help before the phone dies. That can be looked upon as wasted screen time, or padding to make sure the film was as long as promised. In the biology lab, the only science books on the counter were physics books, which would have been out of place so that is a bit sloppy for the props people. The film probably delivered what they wanted it to deliver, but it still is a very forgettable film. It is not so over the top that it is a parody, nor is there any reason for the creatures being what they were. It is a dull movie, as Danny is a dull person. It is interesting as the pistol he has is referenced to Jose Wales. In that movie's background info, that civil war pistol was as likely to kill the shooter as kill the enemy! It was prone to misfire.

I sat the whole movie out, but to be honest, I more than once used the FF button. Watching a man lying trapped under a car in a garage for what feels like an hour, gets pretty tedious, even if there are weird maggot-like worms creeping up on him. I guess the makers wanted to evoke the claustrophobic feeling of main character Danny, and in this they succeeded, but that doesn't automatically make for compelling cinema. The worms should have made the difference, but they were just too fake and unconvincing.

The lack of logic didn't make things any better. Like that a bite by a worm should be lethal within three hours, but we see Danny struggle for what seems to be endlessly, and he still can put up some heroic physical fights with the creatures up until the last minutes! Then there were these unnecessary side-storylines: Danny discovering (during the predicament of his being trapped!) that his real father is in fact the guy that lies crushed to death next to him under the same car; and his relational problems with his girlfriend. They didn't add anything whatsoever to the main story; if Bill would have been just a friend, and Danny's relation with Angela all peachy, then the story wouldn't have changed a bit! And finally they came up again with this lamest of clichés: a smartphone having only 3 percent battery (in the middle of the day?! What on earth did Danny do with that phone all morning long?!).

My only positive feeling concerned Joseph Armani as Danny, albeit mainly for his great looks. As an actor they didn't give him much to put his teeth in (well, except for one of the worms!).

No pun intended - the movie is .. well you have to cut it quite some slack. You have to be a fan of horror movies too. Michael Pare is I reckon a known name, but it is someone else who is the main character here - Pare is only there to add some name recognition I suppose.

The real star are the special effects anyway - which are not bad considering this is a low budget movie. Still the question is, can you dig (no pun intended) being closed off, being a "prisoner" in a close space and just let the absurdity of the movie rule over you and the running time? I don't judge any actor or rather their acting abilities just based on this movie - you probably shouldn't either ... they don't act ... naturally ... again no pun intended.