they crawl start with a runaway bus demolish half of los angeles and crash and detective gina obannon ( tamara davis ) be on the case . glen ( ken lerner ) the coroner do an autopsy on the bus driver ( jerry kernion ) and discover that the driver have strange electricity burn on his body and his inside be go . obannon suspect a religious cult know a the trillion a they sacrifice victim by electricity and remove their innards and obannon bank on it be more than just a coincidence and decide to pay the cult leader tiny frakes ( mickey rourke ) a visit . meanwhile ted gage ( daniel cosgrove ) have return home to see his family but before he get an opportunity to see his brother brian ( chase hampton ) he die in mysterious circumstance when his flat blow up . again and obannon be on the case and once again glen the coroner find the same injury to brian a be present on the bus driver which have to be more than coincidence . obannon and ted team up and after some investigation they uncover sinister military experiment and conspiracy and lie and murder and an egotistical madman who want to take over earth use radio control killer cockroach . for no other apparent reason that he can . direct by john allerdice they crawl be one crap sci fi horror film that waste 90 odd minute of my life . the script by curtis joseph and david mason be so slow it untrue and i be bore rigid throughout . the x file style government or military conspiracy side of thing be as dull a it sound while the horror element be severely lack . until the final 10 or so minute there be precisely three cockroach attack and that three attack in 80 minute and one of those be right at the start . the rest of the excruciate running time be devote to obannon and ted investigation a they uncover the conspiracy and unfortunately they crawl be one of those film where we and the audience that be and know that there be killer cockroach scuttle around and it take the main character virtually the entire film to catch up and it become an absolute snooze fest wait . it be never explain to my satisfaction how the cockroach be control and something about the correct frequency be mention vaguely but it never really discuss and the equipment need never show . another thing i be not happy about be the use of footage from other film and during the opening sequence a bus driver be attack and he swerve all over the place hit other car and it painfully obvious that this footage come from the swarzenegger action film red heat ( 1988 ) and i keep say to myself why the hell do not the bus driver just pull over and stop . because they couldn not have steal that footage then that why . the bit when brians flat explodes be take from rush hour ( 1998 ) and there a bit when a house explode lift from another swarzenegger film and last action hero ( 1993 ) . to add insult to injury these scene be the best in the entire film . the plot be a mess and it dull and repetitive and boring and you can see the so called twist end come a mile off . director allerdice do an ok job and the film be alright to look at and have a few neat special effect . the huge cockroach make out of ordinary cockroach at the end look pretty good but this be far too little far too late . there be no atmosphere to it and there definitely no scare and shock or surprise and the horror be secondary to the dull conspiracy . forget about any blood or gore a there isn not any and there be a couple of wound and a cockroach come out of someone ear and that it . although if you be scar of cockroach then they crawl may make you feel a bit uneasy . they crawl must have have a low budget and all the decent bit be steal from other infinitely well film . a it be it competent at least but that about the best thing i can say about it . the act suck and what on earth be mickey rourke do in crap like this . they crawl be one of the bad killer bug film i have ever see and the bug seem to be almost totally ignore in favour of dull melodramatics and x file style conspiracy that go out of fashion a long time ago and unfortunately no one tell the hack who make this . there be absolutely nothing by which i could recommend this total waste of celluloid and for insomniac and masochists only .