STACK #180 Oct 2019

FILM FEATURE

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Producers Sam Raimi and Craig Flores tell STACK why French director Alexandre Aja was the perfect choice to bring the tense survival-horror Crawl to the screen. Words Scott Hocking MONSTER STORM

Myth #1: You should run zigzag if you come across an alligator If an alligator does make an aggressive charge, run fast and straight (away from the alligator, of course). Their blind spots are in front of their noses. Myth #2: Alligators have poor eyesight Alligators actually have very good eyesight, which is an important adaptation for hunting. They have a wide range of sight and can see well in low light conditions. They are especially adapted to see and sense movement of potential prey animals. Myth #3: Alligators are not good climbers Alligators have sharp claws and powerful tails to help them push their bodies up. Young alligators are agile climbers and adults have been known to climb fences to get to water or escape captivity. Low fences, therefore, may not be sufficient protection for pets in areas where alligators are present. Myth #4: Alligators cannot open their mouth underwater Some people believe they are safe as long

S am Raimi’s last horror film as a director was Drag Me to Hell in 2009. Over the last decade, the filmmaker who also unleashed the Evil Dead has been content to produce films for talented directors and observe how they work. “Right now I’m in a taking-in period where I want to keep learning, while simultaneously looking for a great script,” he tells STACK . “It’s kind of like going to school with a front row seat.” One such director that particularly impressed Raimi was Alexandre Aja, whose genre credits include gory French thriller Haute Tension (2003) and accomplished remakes of The Hills Have Eyes (2006) and Piranha (2010). “I had seen Haute Tension and it was nail- biting, incredibly tense, with a great use of camera. It was like Hitchcock on steroids. I wanted to work with him and I gave him a job offer – I was producing a movie at the time – but he couldn’t do it at the time. “And then a year and a half ago I got a call from a friend and they said Alex is directing this movie that Craig [Flores] was producing and I said, ‘If the script is good, absolutely, I’ve been waiting to work with this guy.’ And the script was great.”

as the crocodile or alligator remains underwater, but this is absolutely false. Crocodilians have a special valve at the back of their throat (a palatal valve), which stops water from entering the throat. This means that any crocodilian species can open its mouth and bite even when submerged, and the majority of crocodilian attacks occur this way.

That script was Crawl , a gripping two-hander that traps a father and daughter (Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper) in their Florida home during a category five hurricane. As the floodwaters rise, hungry alligators move in for the kill and a tense struggle for survival begins. “We had very confined, small set pieces with a lot of terror involved,” says Flores. “If you look at The Hills Have Eyes it has a haunting, dreading feel; Alex does a great job crafting that.” Raimi adds that Aja’s confidence in his vision and ability as a suspense filmmaker made him the right director for Crawl . “He really has a great sense of his audience and timing, and how to manipulate them like a master. Plus he had experience from Piranha , having worked with vast volumes of water. This film really took so many different abilities. He gets great performances out of actors. [ Crawl ] has

just two primary actors that you’re with every single minute, so there’s nothing you can fake. You really have to, as a director, understand the journey they’re going through, their conflicts, resolutions, how they’re overwhelmed by the whole thing.” Aja’s technical prowess was also an asset on a film that required a lot of VFX sequences, not least some frighteningly convincing CGI alligators and a monster storm. “He was so masterful, in a dramatic way, in the editing room working with the CGI artists,” recalls Raimi. “He wasn’t trying to make things more spectacular, but real. If he could make it real, he could really scare his audience.” It’s this commitment to realism that gives Crawl ample bite and distinguishes it from similar creature features. “[Alex] has a couple of different styles but the one he applied to this is a very grounded one, very realistic, with the combination of not taking itself too seriously,” says Flores. “Everything feels very real, very visceral, and it’s unrelenting. I don’t think since Jaws there’s been that grounded quality. Other creature-in-the- water movies are a little bit campy; we went in a different direction.”

• Crawl is out on Oct 23

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OCTOBER 2019

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