Synopsis:
While quarantining at a Thailand hotel, guests begin disappearing with no explanation from staff, leaving the group to wonder whether there may be some truth to local urban legends about a terrifying creature rumored to possess its victims.
What We Thought:
Creepy Crawly is a decent enough watch. It relies heavily on CGI and reminds me of a creature feature you would have found on SyFy a decade ago. It’s from Thailand so I’m not familiar with any of the cast or filmmakers.
Despite being watchable it has two major issues. First of all it doesn’t explain itself so I don’t know if it actually makes a lick of sense. The cold open is a woman recording herself camping where she runs into a woman wearing a mouth covering with blood. You see a centipede in her tent, the old woman again and then it goes to the opening credits.
As it steps into the hotel during Covid lockdown, you really don’t get any kind of explanation of the creature, why the centipedes are involved or how it transfers itself to other people, etc. Maybe it’s a creature from Thai folklore, I have no idea, I’m not Thai. One character has a blood disease the creature wants and unless I missed that explanation, I have no idea what the creature wanted the blood for.
Second, because it takes place in 2020 during Covid lockdowns, it already feels dated. No Covid hasn’t fully gone away (it won’t), but seeing people having to quarantine for days in a hotel and wearing masks feels outdated. The film probably came out in Thailand a while ago so it might not have felt as dated when it opened there. Other than having to quarantine in the hotel, Covid itself doesn’t really seem to matter to the storyline. It could have been a smaller hotel with less rooms and you’d still get the same situation.
But the film itself keeps it simple. There are only a handful of characters and only a few to care about. The hotel manager you want dead immediately. Others you know probably will get killed as well. The woman with the blood issue and a martial artist type are sort of the leads along with his sister and dad for the most part. The hotel with limited capacity makes for a good horror environment because it limits characters and the creature and centipedes can travel quickly throughout.
Creepy Crawly is good for a watch. If you liked all the random creature features from SyFy and Netflix ten years ago you should have fun with this. You won’t understand the point at all, but it’s a good way to start off Spooky Season now that it’s October.
The Nerds Templar 