Get ready to Crawl 2 the cinema again!
If you glance at IMDb, you’ll see hundreds of creature features currently in development. What does that mean? They’re popular, and to quote Alan Partridge: “Let’s make more!”
Director Alexandre Aja is finally moving forward with a sequel to his 2019 alligator hit, Crawl. While rumors of a follow-up have swirled for years, they often stalled out. Early reports suggested the sequel would trade the Florida suburbs for a partially submerged New York City. Since NYC isn’t currently underwater (last time we checked), Aja will clearly need some creative storytelling to justify that aquatic urban landscape.
Recently, producer Sam Raimi spoke with The Wrap to shed light on why the gears stopped turning—and why they’re finally grinding back to life. According to Raimi, the delay was largely due to corporate shuffling:
“We’ve been trying to get a ‘go’ from the studio, and they changed hands—Paramount Pictures did. Now the new group that’s come in… they’re interested in Crawl 2. That’s all I can really say right now—I’ve got a new hope to make it.”
Raimi, a master of blending high-tension horror with a touch of camp, also addressed the stigma that often follows the genre. While some studio executives might find an “alligator in the basement” premise a bit beneath their “lofty ambitions,” Raimi isn’t having it.
“Yes, it’s a B-movie, but it’s a blast,” Raimi told The Wrap. He emphasized that if a film is well-made, suspenseful, and features characters the audience actually cares about, there is absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about.
A sequel is a statistical no-brainer. The original 2019 film was a masterclass in tension, pitting Kaya Scodelario against a Category 5 hurricane and a pack of hungry gators in a flooded crawlspace. It raked in $91 million worldwide on a lean $13 million budget.
Aja, known for the “New French Extremity” classic High Tension, the 2006 remake of The Hills Have Eyes, and the glorious guilty pleasure Piranha 3D, is a veteran of the genre. Surprisingly, Crawl 2 would mark his first-ever venture into “sequelville.”