As the title suggests, Creepy Crawly is about a bug. Lots of them, in fact. This Thai horror movie’s original title of The 100 alluded to its predatory antagonist’s many legs, but the new name now eliminates any chance of vagueness. The renaming might also indicate a sense of fun. However, viewers will quickly realize this story of people trapped in a hotel with a giant centipede monster takes itself rather seriously. Maybe too much so.
In the world of Creepy Crawly, society is still dealing with COVID-19. The Pandemic is at its peak, and death and sickness is on everyone’s minds. Directors Chalit Krileadmongkon (The Beast Below) and Pakphum Wongjinda play on that relatable vulnerability and paranoia by introducing a blatantly metaphorical threat: the parasitic monster that passes from person to person like a communicable disease. The tension is then magnified by using a single location for most of the movie. Going in, the story shows promise, but eventually that brief potential is overshadowed by the movie’s less appealing aspects.
The idea for Creepy Crawly is both simple and attractive: hotel guests are picked off slasher-style not by a human killer but a fantastical creature. It’s unfortunate how that pitch is then buried beneath a lot of grating melodrama. The quarantined guests at this run-down motel range from simply forgettable to outright unpleasant. The time taken to show these strangers constantly at one another’s throats could have been better spent elsewhere.
The worst offender of the bunch is Mike Angelo’s character, a martial artist haunted by his past and at odds with his father and other guests. This is another case of cursory grief backfiring; with trauma now as his defining trait and motivation, Angelo’s character is reduced to a caricature. That repetitive sort of brooding and aggression becomes exhausting long before the third act comes into view. The other lead, played by Pakphum Wongjinda, is more tolerable, although using her preexisting disorder as emotional shorthand isn’t effective either.
The main attraction of Creepy Crawly is without question its segmented and multi-legged villain called Tabongplum. The visual effects, courtesy of Matchwork, aren’t quite flawless, yet in certain scenes, they are potent. Unfortunately for fans of practical effects, they will go hungry here; the Venom-like Tabongplum is achieved with CGI. The creature design alone, however, is the stuff of nightmares, especially if you’re scared of skittering critters to begin with. Seeing the monster interact with its prey is not always as smooth-looking or impressive, though. Immensity and sharp appendages aside, Tabongplum’s menace and wonder are each diminished the more it appears in clean shots with people.
Creepy Crawly loses points for unlikable and paper-thin characters as well as taxing personal dramas that hog the spotlight, but on the plus side, the movie gains a few points back with its sheer creature concept. The Tabongplum looks ghastly and fierce in the right scenes; if only it had a better vehicle to play around in. The isolated and unsettling location also produces appropriate amounts of dread, and the general situation should naturally intrigue fans of movies like Alien and The Thing. Overall, this movie has its certain caveats — not even ones unique to itself but the monster subgenre in general — that can be overlooked so long as you have experience and patience with these kinds of flawed creature-features.
Creepy Crawly debuts on Digital, Blu-ray and DVD on October 3, 2023.
Poster: Well Go USA Entertainment
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