Danger! Crawl 2 Is Crawling Towards Us Soon
Do you like alligators? If your answer is “yes” or at least “not in reality, but yes in the cinema,” the following news will make you happy. “Crawl 2” is being developed by Paramount, and there is already some exciting news related to it. With the horror giant Alexandre Aja behind the camera and a different cast and location, this movie looks very solid and might even overtake the first one. Here’s everything we know about the sequel.
Like Jaws, Only With An Alligators In The House: The Plot of Crawl
“Crawl” from 2019 was quite an impressive success. It was produced with a relatively low budget of about 14 million dollars and managed to get in about 91.5 million dollars at the worldwide box office, which made it very profitable for the studio. When this happens, it is clear that the expectation is to get a sequel, even if, in this case, the expectation is relatively long and will be at least six years.
“Crawl,” written by brothers Michael and Shawn Rasmussen, received favorable reviews with an 84% positive score on Rotten Tomatoes and a weighted critic score of 60 on Metacritic. It combined classic natural horror film with disaster movie elements (don’t expect too many wild effects, since it is not “Twisters”), included some suspenseful scenes, and a well-constructed relationship between a father and a daughter, trying to find him in the middle of the storm, in a house flooded with alligators.
Like many survival films in recent years, “Crawl” showed that crocodiles are not the only threat facing the heroes (one of the taglines of the film is “If the storm doesn’t catch you, they will”). Surprisingly, the film did it mostly convincingly, and it was not too messy or cluttered, as happens too much. It is clear that “Crawl is not the best survival film ever made, and perhaps not the best crocodile movie horror, but it stood out for good in a subgenre that includes too many cinematic disasters.
Here is the trailer for “Crawl”:
Crawl 2: Florida OUT, New York IN
The question regarding the sequels of films of this type is what to continue with, from the basis of the original movie, and what they should try to improve.
The first exciting decision in this case is to change the film’s location, which can also affect its style and plot. “Crawl” took place in Florida during a category 5 hurricane and dealt with a young woman trying to locate her father in a flooded house who happens to be attacked by alligators that come through the sewers.
The location here is anything but accidental. Florida is known for its hurricanes: In recent years, we have heard, for example, about Hurricane “Ian” hitting it powerfully in 2022 or the current storm “Debby,” which has already caused massive damage. Moreover, Florida is known as the “land of alligators.”: According to estimations, there are no less than 1.3 million alligators in Florida’s 67 counties, meaning there is one alligator for every 10-15 people. In other words, the scenario of crocodiles attacking a flooded house during a hurricane may seem fictional at first glance, and the first film certainly contributed to this with some puzzling decisions and plot holes. Still, if there’s a state where this could happen, it is probably Florida.
Therefore, the fact that the next film will take place according to the publications in New York is undoubtedly intriguing (it will be filmed in Europe at all, by the way). Instead of the rural setting of Florida, the new film will have to deal with the challenges of a dense urban environment.
It will be interesting to see the plot explanation for the crocodile attack, assuming it will come, and who will have to face the battle of life and death against the fearsome creatures. Will we see a survival battle between several characters cut off from the world, a personal story amidst a collective disaster in a busy city, or a situation that brings together several stereotypical characters with different backgrounds in a public place?
The Encouraging News: Alexander Aja Returns To The Director’s Chair
The most significant news regarding “Crawl 2” is that the excellent French director Alexandre Aja, who directed and produced the first film, will take the reins once again. Aja broke out in 2003 with the excellent “Haute Tension,” a kind of slasher that is a tribute to the great slasher films of the past.
Then came several more projects, such as:
- The bloody remake of “The Hills Have Eyes” from 2006 (originally a film by Wes Craven)
- The remake and 3D version of “Piranha” (2010,) a fun trash movie for fans of movies about scary fish
- “Horns” (2010) with Daniel Radcliffe and Jono Temple, based on the book by Joe Hill (the pen name of Joseph Hillstrom King, the son of Stephen King who wrote, for example, “The Black Phone“)
- “Mirrors” (2008) – One of the best mirror movies out there, which included a scene that made us (and Amy Smart) drop our jaws
- “Oxygene” (2021) – A claustrophobic thriller about a woman (Mélanie Laurent) who wakes up inside a medical cryogenic chamber, not knowing how she got there and what she needs to do to get out of there in time
From this list and Aja’s additional credits as a producer (“Night of the Hunted,” “The Other Side of the Door,” “The Pyramid”), you can see that Aja is one of the busiest horror creators in recent years. Not every movie of his is a masterpiece, and sometimes the quality is far from it, but this is definitely someone who knows how to create intense horror scenes and keep high tension (see what I did here?).
Aja will produce the film with Craig Flores and Sam Raimi – who, of course, should not be introduced to horror fans – with whom he collaborated on the first film. The screenplay will be written this time by Andrew Deutschman and Jason Pagan, whose résumé you will find so far only two films: “Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension” and the not-bad Found Footage film “Project Almanac” (about a group of young people who build a time machine and discover minds What can go wrong goes wrong with this), both from 2015. Perhaps this limited filmography shows to some extent that the film will go in the direction of technology or even science fiction. And maybe not.
Crawl 2 Cast: New Names (Probably)
Remount plans to shoot the film in Europe this fall. We have yet to determine who will star in the movie. Still, it seems that we will get a new cast here, that is, without Kaya Scodelario (“The Maze Runner,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge,” “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City”), who played the daughter and Barry Pepper (“Saving Private Ryan,” “True Grit”… and also “The Maze Runner” films) who stepped into her father’s shoes.
So, what can be learned about “Crawl 2” in the meantime? Overall, it is a promising project combining the talent behind the original film’s success with new ideas and challenges. The move to New York and the change in the writing team tell us that we may get a new direction, even a sequel that tries to expand and develop the world of the original film.
