Crawlers (2026) Review
Crawlers (2026) Review
If spiders decide to eat humans… we’ll all be dead in a year. That’s the rather unsettling premise behind Crawlers, a creature feature that delivers exactly what it promises: eight-legged mayhem, plenty of gore and a healthy dose of arachnophobic nightmares.
When a resident unwittingly introduces a particularly nasty new breed of venomous spiders into a Los Angeles apartment block, the building is plunged into lockdown chaos. As the deadly creatures multiply at an alarming rate, building manager Serena (Matilda Lutz) must rally a collection of misfit neighbours and navigate their increasingly desperate attempts to survive, while also contending with authorities struggling to contain the infestation.
Directed by Ángel Gómez Hernández (El hombre del saco) and written by Jayson Rothwell (Polar), the film stars Matilda Lutz (Red Sonja), Gregg Sulkin (Marvel’s Runaways), Melina Matthews (Sanctuary), William Miller (Warrior Nun) and Elena Sanz (Black Mirror).
A thoroughly enjoyable Saturday-night creature feature, Crawlers kicks things off with some startling statistics about spiders. Whether they’re entirely accurate is another matter, but I’m happy to take them at face value, particularly as someone who would happily run a marathon to avoid sharing a room with one. Consequently, watching a film that taps directly into every arachnophobe’s worst nightmare was never going to be a particularly relaxing experience.
Fortunately, Crawlers delivers the goods. Unlike Christopher Smith’s recent Spider Island, the spiders here look and move convincingly, and the sheer number of them, rendered with impressive effectiveness, makes their presence all the more unsettling. Some online reviews have been unnecessarily harsh, seemingly overlooking the fact that this isn’t aspiring to high art. It’s here to entertain, and on that score it succeeds admirably.
The characters are established quickly and efficiently, leaving the film free to concentrate on what really matters: eight-legged terror. There’s also a welcome sprinkling of humour to offset the carnage, while several deliberately irritating characters are practically begging for a particularly unpleasant demise. Thankfully, the film doesn’t disappoint in that department. A dominatrix even emerges as one of the more resourceful members of the supporting cast, with her rather distinctive wardrobe proving surprisingly useful when Serena faces the spiders during the climax.
The finale has more than a passing resemblance to Aliens, with Serena racing against the clock to rescue a child before taking on the mother of the colony. It’s an appropriately frantic conclusion to a film that knows exactly what its audience wants. Even if spiders don’t particularly bother you, the effective gore and make-up effects should still leave you feeling a little queasy. Those with a genuine arachnophobia might want to keep the vacuum cleaner close at hand.
Crawlers may not reinvent the creature-feature wheel, but it delivers a suitably entertaining evening of spider-infested mayhem. Just don’t expect me to be checking underneath the bed anytime soon.
Crawlers is available on Digital Platforms November 9 and DVD December 7. Distributed by Signature Entertainment. Click on the link below to read our review.
