Watch the first trailer for Crawl, a disaster horror movie hybrid from the director of The Hills Have Eyes

The best horror movies are those which subvert expectations, bringing new twists and surprises to the age old tradition of scaring audiences silly. Director Alexandre Aja is no stranger to this truism, with his back catalogue of films including The Hills Have Eyes, Mirrors, and Piranha 3D.

Aja's new horror movie, however, is an altogether different beast to his previous work, and the new trailer - which we can debut today on GamesRadar+ (courtesy of our sister magazine Total Film) - suggests it could well be one of the best upcoming movies of the year.

Produced by Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Spider-Man) Crawl takes place not in a haunted house or a zombie apocalypse, but during a Category 5 hurricane in Florida. While that conceit seems like a more plausible set up for a disaster movie than a scare-fest, Crawl's story quickly descends into a reptilian nightmare, as main character Haley (played by Kaya Scodelario) finds herself trapped in a flooding house... alongside several of Florida's natural predators.

You can watch the first full trailer for Crawl in the video above, which includes a personal greeting from Alexandre Aja himself. He certainly seems like a lovely bloke, but don't get lulled into a false sense of security; the trailer itself is not for the faint of heart. You'll be able to catch Crawl in cinemas worldwide from March 6 later this year, though the herpetophobes out there may want to conquer their fears before heading into the theatre...

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Alex is a former Features Writer at GamesRadar, which once made him responsible for gracing the internet with as many of my words as possible, including reviews, previews, interviews, and more. Lucky internet!