Review of the film ‘The Crawling’ (2026)

‘The Crawling’ is a psychological horror film. Mike is a policeman in trouble. He’s suspended and under investigation because of the beating of a boy. He’s also under pressure of his companion Boyd who is afraid of his reaction. Mike’s partner, Emma, who is a counsellor, takes him to a lonely cabin in the countryside to spend some days together and conceive a baby. But during the night, under sleep paralysis, Mike sees strange individuals of extraterrestrial aspect. The following morning, everything seems normal and Emma disbelieves him.

The plot advances slowly. On one hand, there is the police plot, but it is not really developed. We never know why Boyd is afraid of what Mike would do - the spectator is left to suppose that Boyd is afraid of Mike revealing something about him. On another hand, Mike talks about his trauma from the past - the film touches the topic of violent culture being passed on from one generation to the next. And then, night comes back. The film could be said to be half drama, half psychological horror.

The direction from Christian Everhard has good camera moves. On the other hand, the pace is slow - probably because of the story being too short and needing to fill minutes with drama. The music from Tasos Eliopoulos creates an adequate atmosphere. There are also some visual effects, but simple ones.

As for the acting, good acting from Will Brittain and Katherine Hughes, and excellent acting from Robert Lewis Stephenson. Also excellent voice acting from the character playing the counselling call.

All in all, a well-done psychological horror film but too much simple. 2 out of 5.

Title:	The Crawling
Genre:	Horror
Year:	2026
Nationality:	United States
Colour:	Colour
Director:	Christian Everhard
Writer:	Christian Everhard, Norman Meyers
Cast:	Will Brittain, Katherine Hughes, Robert Lewis Stephenson, Dwandra Nickole, Jeremy Koch, Atis Kleinbergs, Lisa Abbott
Producer:	Nick Donadio, Christian Everhard, Ryan March
Co-producer:	Michael Jasper
Executive producer:	Kim Gammon, Cleve Gunderman, Nicky Jasper, Marlo Matson, Steve Wang
Production designer:	Zach Thomas
Cinematographer:	Alexander Bergman
Film editor:	Ryan March
Casting:	J. McAlary, Matthew Nelson
Costume Designer:	Jessica VanAssche
Music:	Tasos Eliopoulos
Running time:	83 minutes
Language:	English