Crawl Cracked

[Evelio Olivo]

Crawlis a 2019 American natural horror film directed by Alexandre Aja, written by brothers Michael and Shawn Rasmussen, and produced by Sam Raimi. It stars Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper as a daughter and father who, along with their dog, find themselves trapped in the crawl space of their home and preyed upon by alligators during a Category 5 hurricane in Florida.

Aja rewrote the original spec script from the Rasmussen brothers to expand the length of the story and its characters. The film was officially announced in May 2018, and production started in Serbia in August with cinematographer Maxime Alexandre. The film was primarily shot within a warehouse facility located in the Port of Belgrade and wrapped shooting after 41 days in September. During post-production, the film score was composed by Max Aruj and Steffen Thum, and visual effects such as the alligators were produced by Rodeo FX. It took three months to complete the visual effects.

University of Florida 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 goes against the instructions of Beth's ex-boyfriend, Florida state trooper Wayne, by deciding to check out their old family home in Coral Lake, a location at risk of flooding.

Haley finds the house empty, so she descends into the house's crawl space with the help of the family dog, Sugar, and finds her father unconscious. Suddenly, her main exit is cut off by several large American alligators. As the house begins to flood, Haley attempts to navigate around them to retrieve her phone but is ambushed by two alligators that destroy the phone and injure her leg. She notices three people looting a nearby gas station, but, despite one of them spotting her signal, each of them is devoured by alligators as she watches in despair.

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 and devoured underwater by an alligator. In a last-ditch effort to escape, Haley swims to a storm drain, where she discovers the alligators have made their nest and laid eggs.

Haley successfully kills an alligator with Wayne's gun by firing down its throat. She then swims out into the flooded street through the storm drain and enters the house to crowbar the living room floor open, saving Dave from drowning. Haley, Dave, and Sugar carefully make their way onto a boat outside as the eye of the hurricane moves over the neighborhood. The floodwaters break the nearby levees, crashing them back into the house.

As Dave and Sugar make their way up the stairs, Dave loses his right arm when he is attacked by an alligator. 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 tries to perform 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, they rest for a brief moment on the roof. Dave gawks wide eyed past his daughter at something, to which she turns to look. A bright light shines down through the clouds, the beam emanating from a rescue helicopter dispatched as a result of the distress call Haley made earlier. Haley lights a flare and flags down the rescue helicopter, turning to gaze upon her father in triumph and relief as Dave proudly watches.

Kaya Scodelario entered negotiations to star in May 2018.[18] Paramount executive Wyck Godfrey gave her the chance to join the film in a leading role without having to audition.[19][20] 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."[21] To physically prepare for the role, Scodelario was trained to swim by coaches from England and Serbia,[19] including a former Olympian,[22] who helped her for six to seven weeks at the London Aquatics Centre.[19][20] Her training progressed from her having to swim in a kiddie pool with floaties to swimming at a "good speed and quite good stamina".[21][23] Barry Pepper, having previously worked with Scodelario in 2015 on Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, was added to the cast in June 2018.[24] He also underwent months of training to improve his swimming, and said he enjoyed the idea of working on a film about a father-and-daughter relationship.[25]

Alan Gilmore was the film's production designer. 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".[30] 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.[19]

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",[43] Bloody Disgusting compared it to Burning Bright (2010),[44] and Screen Rant wrote that they believed the film would have a "claustrophobic effect" on moviegoers.[45] Early reactions compared the film to 47 Meters Down (2017) and Jaws.[46][47][48]

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.[49] With Chris Evangelista from /Film writing that it was "something I very much want to see",[50] the footage from the trailer was compared to Deep Blue Sea (1999), Open Water (2003), Rogue (2007), Bait 3D (2012), and The Shallows (2016).[51] 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.[52] 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).[53] 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.[54] In July 2019, Comic Book Resources went on to say the trailer "gave away the best scenes" without "kill[ing] any of the suspense".[55] 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.[56][57][58]

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. 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. Paramount opted for digital over television marketing, which would have cost $25 million.[59][60]

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. Its release to positive reviews named it "one of [the] most pleasant (and most terrifying) surprises" of 2019,[19] and the "best 'not screened for film critics' movie in years".[61]

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.[62] In March, the premiere date for the film was brought forward to July 12, 2019, this time to compete against The Farewell and Stuber.[63][64] After the Motion Picture Association gave Crawl an "R" rating for "Bloody creature violence, and brief language,"[65] it was announced that the film would also be released in 4DX auditoriums.[66]

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.[67] Special features, lasting 45 minutes, include a motion comic of an alternate opening scene involving a family being eaten by alligators,[68] deleted and extended scenes, a compilation of scenes titled "Alligator Attacks", behind-the-scenes footage and featurettes, and interviews with the cast and crew.[11][67]

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.[81] That same week, the film made $2.7 million in 21 foreign markets.[82] In its third weekend, Crawl moved to fifth place, due to the release of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and made $4 million.[83] Outside of the two countries, the film grossed $3.4 million, for a $45 million total worldwide.[84] 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.[85]

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