Crawl (2019 film)

Crawl
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Alexandre Aja
Written by	Michael Rasmussen Shawn Rasmussen
Produced by	Craig Flores Sam Raimi Alexandre Aja
Starring	Kaya Scodelario Barry Pepper
Cinematography	Maxime Alexandre
Edited by	Elliot Greenberg
Music by	Max Aruj Steffen Thum
Production companies	Raimi Productions Fire Axe Pictures
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	July 12, 2019 (2019-07-12)
Running time	87 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$13–15 million
Box office	$91.5 million

Crawl is a 2019 American natural horror film directed by Alexandre Aja from a screenplay written by brothers Michael and Shawn Rasmussen. Produced by Sam Raimi, the plot follows Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper as a daughter and father who, along with their dog, are hunted by alligators after being trapped in their home during a Category 5 hurricane in Florida.

Aja received the original spec script for the project in 2017, which he rewrote after finding its one-location style, length, and story disappointing for a feature film. Crawl was later officially announced in May 2018, and production started in Serbia with cinematographer Maxime Alexandre. Mostly shot within a warehouse facility located in the Port of Belgrade, principal photography concluded after 41 days. During post-production, the film score was composed by frequent collaborators Max Aruj and Steffen Thum, and the alligators were created using CGI through the visual effects company Rodeo FX.

Distributed by Paramount Pictures, Crawl opted out of conventional film screenings for critics and premiered in the United States on July 12, 2019. With an "R" rating from the Motion Picture Association, the film grossed $91.5 million against a $13–15 million production budget. Upon release, it was met with generally positive reviews, with praise for its directing, brisk pacing, and visual presentation of its main antagonists. As a result, the film earned a nomination for Best Wide Release at the 2020 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards. After growing speculation, Aja confirmed in April 2021 that a sequel was in development.

Plot[]

Aspiring swimmer Haley Keller receives a call from her sister Beth, who informs her that Category 5 Hurricane Wendy is on its way to Florida, and advises her to get out of the state. Concerned for the safety of her estranged father Dave, Haley goes to check on him at his condo but finds it empty. She decides to check their old family home in Coral Lake and goes against the instructions of Beth's ex-boyfriend Wayne, a member of the Florida Police Department, not to enter Coral Lake as it is flooding quickly.

At the house, Haley descends into the crawl space underneath with the help of the family dog Sugar, eventually finding her father unconscious. Shortly after, her main exit is cut off by several large alligators. As the house begins to flood, Haley attempts to navigate around the alligators to retrieve her phone but is ambushed by two alligators that destroy the phone and injure her leg. Noticing three people looting a nearby gas station, Haley attempts to draw their attention by activating her car's alarm, but the trio is devoured by alligators.

Wayne and his partner Pete arrive at the old house in search of Haley and her father. While Wayne heads into the house to look for them, Pete is ambushed and ripped apart by a swarm of alligators. Wayne locates them as they warn him of the dangers in the crawl space before being pulled into the crawl space by an alligator and devoured underwater. In a last-ditch effort to escape, Haley swims to a storm drain where she discovers that the alligators have made their nest and laid eggs.

Haley successfully kills an alligator using a gun she retrieves from Wayne's body, shooting down the alligator's throat while her arm is inside of it. She then swims out into the flooded street through the storm drain and enters the house to crow-bar the living room floor open, saving Dave from drowning. Outside, Haley, Dave, and Sugar carefully make their way onto a boat as the eye of the hurricane moves over the neighborhood. The floodwaters break the nearby levees, crashing them back into the house.

Dave and Sugar make their way up the stairs, where Dave is attacked by one of the alligators and loses his right arm. Meanwhile, Haley navigates around the kitchen and uses a discarded police radio to broadcast a distress signal to authorities. She also manages to trap an alligator in the house bathroom and attempts to flag down a rescue helicopter from an upstairs bedroom. However, Haley is attacked by another alligator that attempts to drown her in a death roll. While Dave and Sugar escape to the attic, Haley stabs the alligator in the eye with a flare and all three reunite on the roof. After narrowly avoiding another alligator, Haley lights a flare and flags down the rescue helicopter as Dave proudly watches.

Cast[]

Production[]

Development[]

Alexandre Aja rewrote the original script for Crawl and served as director

French filmmaker Alexandre Aja received the spec script for Crawl, written by brothers Michael and Shawn Rasmussen, from producer Craig Flores a year before the film entered production. Wanting to become involved with the project due to its "efficient" and "simple" logline, Aja left a Lionsgate thriller film titled Smart House from director James Wan to read the screenplay but became disappointed after finding out its actual length.^[1][2][3] According to him, the original draft involved a single alligator antagonizing the main characters only in one location, the crawl space of the old house, with a second alligator appearing in the third act.^[4] As a result, Aja rewrote the script over the course of a year to introduce new locations and expand the characters of Haley Keller into being a skilled swimmer, and her father Dave being her former coach.^[5][6] A story he felt was relatable in the correct circumstances,^[7] Aja spoke with Flores multiple times to determine which scenarios would make sense, and worked with Dana Stevens to improve the screenplay, ultimately deciding that giving Haley her swimming ability would serve as an advantage where she had higher probabilities to survive the tough situations presented in the film.^[8][9]

In introducing the characters, Aja decided that having Haley go against the advice of several people to evacuate the city in the opening scene would help express her determination in saving her father. Naming Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963) as an inspiration of said scene, Aja wanted to give audiences the "[feeling] that something is coming and building up" in an "old school" fashion.^[10] Attempting to put the characters in every worst-case scenario possible, Aja also wanted to rewrite the screenplay as a "home invasion movie" where the hurricane was an antagonist.^[11][12][13] As a result, Aja did extensive research on hurricanes and alligators, stating that as he did not have another film to reference, he looked through "hundreds of hours" of real-world footage to find examples of both topics in their "ferocious" and "powerful" nature.^[11][14] After his research, Aja's design of the creatures were inspired by two alligators specifically, a stuffed Mississippi alligator located at the American Museum of Natural History and a sheltered alligator in Miami nicknamed "Godzilla".^[4]

Producer Sam Raimi

Crawl was officially announced on May 1, 2018, when Paramount Pictures bought the rights to the project, and was initially described as a self-contained thriller centered around a woman trying to save her father from the "most savage and feared predators" in Florida.^[15] Having previously worked on Piranha 3D (2010) and Horns (2013), Aja also got on board to direct the film, with Sam Raimi producing alongside Flores. That same day, it was reported that the project had previously been in development through Lakeshore Entertainment and Annapurna Pictures, before moving to Paramount to benefit from the success of A Quiet Place (2018), a low-budget horror film from the studio.^[15][16]

On inspirations for Crawl, Aja mentioned the one-location styles of Alien (1979) and Cujo (1983), while also stating that The Evil Dead (1981), a film written and directed by Raimi, inspired the location of the crawl space.^[13][17][18] With Jaws (1975) serving as "the blueprint",^[19] Aja wanted the film to feel similar to a "rollercoaster" with "not [much] dialogue" while "full of suspense".^[17] As a result, the studio agreed to make the film with a low runtime, ultimately deciding on a mere 87 minutes.^[17][20]

Going against the advice of multiple executives, Aja wanted to create a fast-paced project where the alligators were introduced early on in the film, as he believed people would not expect it due to past experiences with suspenseful features.^[21] On ideas that were not filmed, he also mentioned that the production crew talked about including an ending where the main characters died, stating that "we had a draft with the final alligator grabbing them in the [helicopter] basket".^[22] Furthermore, on the decision to include a dog in the film, Aja said there were several discussions on "whether the dog would live or not";^[23] alternate scenarios involved an alligator biting the dog's tail off, the main characters feeding the dog to the alligators to escape their home, and the dog sacrificing itself to save its owners.^[24] As a result of public reception, it was decided to end the film with a "happy ending" instead.^[12][25]

Casting[]

Kaya Scodelario took lessons to swim for the movie

Kaya Scodelario entered negotiations to star in May 2018,^[26] when Paramount executive Wyck Godfrey gave her the chance to join the film in a leading role without having to audition.^[27][28] Accepting the part, she said she picked the film based on "the material and the character, and if it's going to empower me or teach me or test me."^[29] To physically prepare for the role, Scodelario was trained to swim by coaches from England and Serbia,^[27] including a former Olympian,^[30] who helped her for six to seven weeks at the London Aquatics Centre.^[27][28] Her training progressed from her having to swim in a kiddie pool with floaties to swimming at a "good speed and quite good stamina".^[29][31]

Barry Pepper previously worked with Scodelario in 2015 on Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials.^[32] In June 2018, he joined the cast and also underwent months of training to improve his swimming.^[33] On deciding to work on the film, Pepper said he had not been involved with films surrounding the thriller-horror genre but enjoyed the idea of working on a film about a father-and-daughter relationship living in Florida.^[33]

Design and filming[]

On July 30, 2018, the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, and the United States Ambassador to Serbia, Kyle Randolph Scott, made a visit to the set of Crawl, a warehouse facility for shipping containers located in the Port of Belgrade.^[34][35] The first film from Paramount to be shot in Serbia, Vučić said he was "extremely glad" of the studio's decision to film in the country.^[35] Principal photography began soon after in August, and took place around the city of Belgrade with cinematographer Maxime Alexandre before concluding in September.^[29][34]

Using Arri Alexa cameras, including an Alexa SXT and an Alexa Mini, the film was shot with Leica Summilux-C lenses and Alura lightweight zooms on a Steadicam and a Technocrane.^[36][37] Within the facility, three soundstages were equipped, "the largest one for the exterior house and neighborhood, another for the house exterior and interiors, first and second floor—also used for underwater filming—and a third stage for the basement and roof scenes".^[30][36] In an interview, Pepper mentioned that the warehouses used were the size of football fields and that the houses, gas stations, and trees were built on set.^[38] According to Aja, principal photography concluded after exactly 41 days.^[39]

Alan Gilmore served as the production designer for Crawl, and to make the usage of water realistic, he watched several photo documentaries from New Orleans to research natural disasters and the effects a hurricane could have on houses without sustainable protection to make sure "it looks exactly right and causes the right damage and the right effects".^[40] For the main location, a house was constructed inside one of the warehouses and the production crew added a water tank they were able to fill to flood the house as filming progressed.^[27]

Overall, seven water tanks were built,^[41][42] of which two were filled simply to carry water, four were used for each section of the house, and a larger three-meter tall 60-meter by 80-meter tank was used for the neighborhood.^[43] According to the Serbia Film Commission, most of the film was shot after the house was flooded with the main water tanks, with 5 million liters of water being used on a daily basis.^[38][44] Scodelario found the shoot "the most physically demanding" of her career: "I was broken at the end of every day. We were shooting 16- to 18-hour days. I was on set all day, every day. I lost about 12 pounds shooting the movie, but I gained some of it in muscle, which I was quite impressed with. I broke a finger; I came home every day bruised, bloodied and cut open."^[27] She has spoken of how she "beefed up" her character as much as she could,^[28] eschewing makeup and playing most of the film in her bare feet, explaining: "I fought to have her barefoot [...] I didn't want protection on my feet. As a girl who's a swimmer, she's going to wear flip-flops and once she has to crawl around, she's going to kick them off."^[27] Additional filming took place in the United States, specifically around Tampa Bay in Tierra Verde, Lake Maggiore in St. Petersburg, and Thonotosassa, where exterior scenes and B-roll footage was shot.^[45][46] Scenes involving characters driving were shot in front of green screens, with some footage being filmed with stuntmen while actors were still in Belgrade.^[45][47]

Practical alligators, including the baby alligators, were created for a mere four to five takes in the film.^[48] To simulate the CGI alligators, scenes varied between Serbian stuntmen wearing green spandex suits, divers recreating alligator movements underwater, the director holding a pole attached to a pillow wrapped in green fabric, and actors reacting to fake alligator heads on sticks.^[11][27][42] Most of the weather elements seen in the film, including the wind and the rain, were provided on-set during filming, while the setting, trees, and hurricane itself were computer-generated.^[49] After filming concluded, the visual effects were handled during post-production for three months by Rodeo FX, supervised by Thomas Montminy Brodeur and Keith Kolder, who created a total 244 shots for the film.^[11][29][50]

Music[]

The film score to Crawl was originally going to be created by an unnamed composer who Aja said left the project due to creative differences. As a result, Max Aruj and Steffen Thum were hired to compose the score in under a month, which caused a worried Aja to believe the film would be delayed; Paramount reassured the group that this would not happen.^[52]

Before working on Crawl, Aruj and Thum had collaborated on multiple projects while working under Remote Control Productions, including on the Netflix film iBoy (2017).^[53] As a result, the pair were able to work together to create a "seamless score",^[54] which they recorded at Synchron Stage Vienna.^[55] Produced by Scottish composer Lorne Balfe, the score was released by Paramount Music as Crawl (Music from the Motion Picture) on July 12, 2019,^[56][57] and on Vinyl LP by Rusted Wave on March 6, 2020.^[55]

Marketing[]

The marketing campaign from Paramount Pictures for Crawl began on April 4, 2019, when initial footage was shown at CinemaCon. While /Film said the footage made the premise of the film feel similar to a "wacky sounding horror movie",^[58] Bloody Disgusting compared it to Burning Bright (2010),^[59] and Screen Rant wrote that they believed the film would have a "claustrophobic effect" on moviegoers.^[60] That same month, four publicity stills were released, and critics began to compare the film to 47 Meters Down (2017) and Jaws.^[61][62][63]

On May 2, 2019, an official trailer for the feature film was released alongside the first theatrical release poster; the second poster was released two weeks later.^[64] With Chris Evangelista from /Film writing that it was "something I very much want to see",^[65] the footage from the trailer was compared to Deep Blue Sea (1999), Open Water (2003), Rogue (2007), Bait 3D (2012), and The Shallows (2016).^[66] From Syfy Wire, Josh Weiss compared the premise to the Florida Man internet meme and said that based on the trailer, Crawl would be able to compete with the Lake Placid film series, a franchise centered on crocodile horror films.^[67] Screen Rant journalist Cooper Hood wrote that the trailer "effectively conveys the thrills and sense of dread that it wants", and compared it to Don't Breathe (2016).^[68] Within a few hours of release, the trailer was watched by over a million viewers, which Entertainment Weekly credited to the "viral marketing" from Paramount, who had models, influencers, and celebrities, including several from Jersey Shore, Floribama Shore, and Siesta Key, share content from the film.^[69] In July 2019, Comic Book Resources went on to say the trailer "gave away the best scenes" without "kill[ing] any of the suspense".^[70] That same month, several clips and film stills were released; Brad Miska from Bloody Disgusting recommended viewers to avoid watching them before seeing the film.^[71][72][73]

In a marketing summary from Deadline Hollywood, Anthony D'Alessandro analyzed the reason Crawl, alongside Stuber, failed to generate the same buzz created by The Meg in 2018 and that year's Spider-Man: Far From Home and Toy Story 4.^[74] In his report, the reasoning was credited to the release of a single trailer, the appearance of digital advertisements only weeks before the film's release, and the social media campaign gaining 57 million views, below the average 82 million for horror films.^[74] Additionally, it was revealed that Paramount had used $25 million for television,^[74] creating more than a dozen unique commercials aired thousands of times on at least twenty-seven networks.^[75]

Release[]

Theatrical[]

Weeks prior to its release, the Crawl marketing crew opted out of conventional film screenings for critics and only had one during its campaign for promotional purposes. However, its release to positive reviews named it "one of [the] most pleasant (and most terrifying) surprises" of 2019,^[27] and the "best 'not screened for film critics' movie in years".^[76]

In January 2019, Crawl was given a theatrical release date for later that year on August 23, to compete against the premieres of Angel Has Fallen and Overcomer.^[77][78] In March, the premiere date for the film was brought forward to July 12, 2019, this time to compete against The Farewell and Stuber.^[78][79] After the Motion Picture Association gave Crawl an "R" rating for "Bloody creature violence, and brief language,"^[80] it was announced that the film would also be released in 4DX auditoriums.^[81]

Home media[]

Paramount Home Entertainment released Crawl via digital download on September 24, 2019, with a Blu-ray, DVD, and video on demand physical release on October 15.^[82] Special features, lasting 45 minutes, include a motion comic of an alternate opening scene involving a family being eaten by alligators,^[83] deleted and extended scenes, a compilation of scenes titled "Alligator Attacks", behind-the-scenes footage and featurettes, and interviews with the cast and crew.^[17][82]

Reception[]

Box office[]

Crawl grossed $39 million in the United States and Canada, and $55.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $91.5 million against a production budget of $13–15 million.^[84][11][85] Marketed as a counterprogramming option for moviegoers,^[74][86] the film's box office performance was seen as a commercial success.^[41][84]

The film premiered in the United States and Canada on July 12, in 3,170 theaters,^[74] where initial estimates predicted the feature would open with $10–14 million.^[87][88] In its four-day opening weekend, Crawl placed third at the box office and earned $12 million,^[89][90] following its earnings of $4.4 million on Friday, including $1 million from Thursday night previews,^[91] $4.3 million on Saturday, and $3.4 million on Sunday.^[74] Audiences were 64% above the age of 25, 60% between the ages of 18–34, and 51% male.^[92][93] Outside of the two countries, the film opened in theaters in 20 foreign markets,^[94] making $4.8 million in its first week,^[95] for a $16.8 million opening weekend worldwide.^[96]

In its second weekend in the United States and Canada, Crawl placed fourth at the box office, having fallen behind due to the release of The Lion King, and grossed $6 million for a $24 million total domestically after 10 days in release.^[97][98] That same week, the film made $2.7 million in 21 foreign markets.^[98] In its third weekend, Crawl moved to fifth place, due to the release of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and made $4 million.^[99] Outside of the two countries, the film grossed $3.4 million, for a $45 million total worldwide.^[100] In its fourth weekend, the film reached $53 million worldwide as eighth at the box office, before falling below the top ten list for the rest of its theatrical release.^[101]

Critical response[]

Quentin Tarantino said Crawl was one of his favorite films of 2019.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 85% of 205 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "An action-packed creature feature that's fast, terrifying, and benefits greatly from a completely game Kaya Scodelario, Crawl is a fun throw-back with just enough self-awareness to work."^[102] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 60 out of 100 based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[103] Audiences polled by CinemaScore during its opening weekend gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported audience members gave it an average rating of 2.5 out of 5 stars, with 46 percent saying they would definitely recommend it.^[74]

Contemporary reviews of the film praised its suspense, brisk pacing, and visual presentation of its main antagonists.^[104][105] In a comparison with 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Daniel Menegaz from Entertainment Weekly shared positive feedback to Crawl's self-awareness, low runtime, and overall execution of its "simple" premise.^[106] The film was also named by Quentin Tarantino as one of his favorite films of 2019.^[107][108]

Giving it a "B-", A.A. Dowd from The A.V. Club lauded the film for extensively using its "R" rating to increase its usage of gore.^[109] In his three-star and a half review for Rolling Stone, David Fear applauded the performances of the leads and Aja's directing.^[110] While Slate's Keith Phipps praised the action sequences and found its summer release to be adequate,^[111] Tomris Laffly from RogerEbert.com wrote that the film was engaging enough to please an audience.^[112] From the Chicago Tribune, Michael Phillips said that he "liked it pretty well" as a "pleasantly unpleasant" film.^[113] Furthermore, Vulture's Angelica Jade Bastién gave an entirely positive review, lending remarks to Scodelario's acting, Alexandre's cinematography, and premise that "more than delivers" as a "great example of a simple story exceedingly well-told".^[114]

Despite the generally positive reviews, several critics gave Crawl a mixed review. Writing for The New York Times, Jeannette Catsoulis criticized the film's screenplay while calling it an efficient popcorn movie.^[115] From The New Yorker, Richard Brody gave positive remarks to the jumpscares but found the visual effects to be unintentionally humorous.^[116] With Variety's Owen Gleiberman pillorying the realism of Haley's survival,^[117] IndieWire referred to the feature as an entertaining and suspenseful B movie, giving it a "C+".^[118] Meanwhile, The Guardian's Simran Hans and Clarisse Loughrey from The Independent both gave the film two stars out of five; the latter summarized it by writing that the film had "its bloody moments, with plenty of lingering shots of gaping wounds and protruding bones [but] just doesn't seem as gleeful in its carnage as the situation calls for".^[119]

Various journalists analyzed the presence of climate change in the film. From GQ, Noah Berlatsky wrote that the hurricane was the actual antagonist, opining that Crawl was set in an apocalyptic world where climate change was not resolved.^[120] Furthermore, Bustle magazine criticized the feature for having the hurricane "act as backdrop and excuse for something ludicrous as a giant alligator".^[121] Miles Howard, from Vice, found that Crawl was marketed to create "climate anxiety" in audiences with experiences with natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, writing that the film presented the hurricane as the representation of an "impending ecological collapse".^[122] Writing for Thrillist, Emma Stefansky said the film was thrilling enough to scare viewers but stated that "it's the looming menace of climate change and its consequences that ought to scare us the most".^[123] In November 2019, The Hill ranked Crawl as one of the top ten films of the year tackling climate change in an effective manner.^[124]

Accolades[]

At the 2020 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, Crawl received a nomination for Best Wide Release.^[125] The film also earned a pair of nominations for Best Horror Film from the Hollywood Critics Association and IGN Awards, losing both to Us.^{[126][127][128]} At the 13th Houston Film Critics Society Awards, the feature received a nomination for Best Stunt Coordination Team, but lost to John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.^[129][130] The National Film and Television Awards would also go on to give Crawl award nominations, for Best Actress (Kaya Scodelario) and Best Producer (Alexandre Aja, Craig Flores, and Sam Raimi),^[131] losing both to Jennifer Lopez from Hustlers and Will Ferrell from Booksmart, respectively.^[132]

Possible sequel[]

In July 2019, Aja said in an interview that he would want to make a sequel to Crawl focusing on different characters in a different story.^[4] That October, he mentioned that the production crew had been developing "a few stories" for a future installment.^[17] Following its positive reception, Aja said he was "sure the question of a sequel [was] going to come up".^[41] Two years later, in April 2021, Aja revealed that a screenplay was, in fact, being written for a potential sequel, but that he could not disclose any more information.^[133]

See also[]

• Burning Bright (2010), film about two siblings trapped at home with a tiger during a hurricane^[134][135]

References[]

Citations[]

Sources[]

External links[]

• Official website
• Crawl at IMDb