Verdict: 3/5 — A gross, scrappy, old-fashioned creature feature that knows exactly what it is. Crawlers has a thin script and cartoonish supporting characters, but Matilda Lutz gives it a beating heart, the spider scares land, and at a lean 81 minutes it earns a spot on your Halloween watchlist.
| Director | Ángel Gómez Hernández |
| Screenplay | Jayson Rothwell |
| Cast | Matilda Lutz, Gregg Sulkin, Melina Matthews, William Miller |
| Runtime | ~81–86 minutes |
| Release | October 16, 2026 (theatrical, US) |
| Genre | Horror / creature feature |
| Early response | Mixed-to-positive among genre critics (Daily Dead: 3/5; early IMDb audience score ~5.1) |
Plot Summary (Spoiler-Light)
When a man unknowingly brings a new species of spider home after a trip, the residents of a rundown Los Angeles apartment building find themselves at the centre of a nightmare. The police place the building under quarantine, trapping everyone inside with a rapidly spreading plague of venomous spiders.
Serena (Matilda Lutz), the overworked manager of the Paradiso Palms complex, is left holding the bag. Her landlord, Mr. Rossmore (William Miller), is exactly the kind of seedy property owner you love to hate, and the residents range from likeable to disposable. Armed with her intimate knowledge of the building’s corridors, crawlspaces and secrets, Serena has to keep a terrified group of tenants alive as the infestation grows more dangerous by the hour.
The setup is shamelessly classic — Arachnophobia walked so Crawlers could run — and the film never pretends otherwise.
What Works
Matilda Lutz is the real deal. The French actress has been quietly excellent for years (Revenge announced her as a serious talent), and she brings the same fire-in-the-belly toughness to Serena. She sells exhaustion, terror and resourcefulness in equal measure, and the film is at its best whenever it stays close to her.
The spiders are genuinely nasty. Director Ángel Gómez Hernández and cinematographer Pablo Rosso (a veteran of the [REC] franchise, who knows his way around a claustrophobic apartment block) make inventive use of confined spaces — webs in chip bags, shoes, baby cribs and above a stalled elevator. The practical gore, particularly the infected wounds, is far more effective than the CGI swarms, and several set pieces squeeze real suspense out of close encounters.
It’s lean and mean. At just over 80 minutes, Crawlers doesn’t overstay its welcome. There’s a pulpy, after-midnight B-movie energy here — goo guns, bondage whips as improvised weapons, coloured emergency lights washing webbed-over corridors in red and blue — that makes it easy to forgive the rough edges. It is, as one festival review put it, a hugely entertaining diversion.
What Doesn’t
The script is the weak link. Jayson Rothwell’s screenplay keeps the humans thin — several characters barely rise above cliché, and two of them seem to exist only to die stupidly in an elevator. The landlord’s greed is cartoonishly on-the-nose, and the film’s attempts at social commentary about exploitative housing practices evaporate within minutes.
The second half gets silly. Once the spiders start attacking in enormous numbers, much of the tension dissolves. The swarm CGI looks noticeably cheaper than the practical effects, the government’s quarantine decisions make little sense, and the finale leans hard into goofy action territory — Aliens-lite with arachnids.
Early Reviews at a Glance
- Daily Dead: 3/5 — “a pulpy after-midnight delight that’ll crawl under your skin,” carried by Lutz and the details.
- iHorror: Positive — “a solid, satisfying spider flick with an easy-to-root-for protagonist.”
- Slant Magazine: Warm — “a taut little B film” with impressive CGI critters and sustained tension.
- The Geek Show (Grimmfest): Positive — “a hugely entertaining 81-minute diversion.”
- Why So Blu?: Mixed-negative — can’t touch Infested or Arachnophobia; Lutz is good, the script is weak.
- Letterboxd early viewers: Harsh — several call it bargain-basement; even they mostly exempt Lutz from blame.
The pattern is clear: critics who show up for a midnight creature feature have a good time; those wanting depth or innovation walk away hungry.
The Bottom Line
Crawlers is not reinventing the creature feature, and it never really tries to. It’s a nasty, funny, fast little spider movie with a terrific lead, some memorably gross scares and exactly one ambition — to make your skin crawl. If that’s what you want from your Halloween viewing, it delivers. Just don’t bring arachnophobia.
3/5.
FAQs
When was Crawlers (2026) released?
Crawlers opened in US theaters on October 16, 2026.
Who stars in Crawlers?
Matilda Lutz leads the cast as Serena, with Gregg Sulkin, Melina Matthews as Lady Lash, and William Miller as the landlord Mr. Rossmore.
Who directed Crawlers?
Ángel Gómez Hernández directed from a screenplay by Jayson Rothwell.
How long is Crawlers?
The film runs roughly 81–86 minutes, depending on the cut.
Is Crawlers streaming?
As of opening weekend, it is a theatrical release; no streaming date has been announced.
Is Crawlers scary?
It’s a creature feature built on squirm-inducing spider scares and body horror rather than supernatural dread — arachnophobes should steer clear.