Editorials
When Nature Attacks: 5 Horror Movies to Watch Ahead of ‘Crawl’
Between the buzz from recent footage shown at CinemaCon and Paramount’s shifting the release date up a full month, Alexandre Aja’s Crawl is quickly becoming one of the summer’s most anticipated horror movies. The film stars Kaya Scoledario as a woman trying to save her father during a Category 5 hurricane in Florida, but finds herself trapped in a flooding house and fighting for her life against alligators.
Humans versus predatorial animals is a long-running subset in horror, but even more niche are movies where humans have to battle vicious beasts while trapped by unpleasant weather conditions. Before you see Crawl, these 5 nature attacks movies should tide you over.
Cujo
Comparatively speaking, the elemental factor in Cujo is tame compared to hurricanes and tsunamis. But there’s something far more real and relatable about being trapped in a hot car under the blazing sun. Donna and Tad Trenton take the broken family Ford Pinto to their repairman to get the alternator fixed, but find themselves forced to take refuge in it thanks to a rabid St. Bernard. If they leave, well, they risk death. But staying inside their makeshift shelter means death too, in the form of heatstroke and dehydration. It’s a no-win situation that makes for a harrowing thriller. In Stephen King’s novel, it’s the elements that causes death to a major character, not the rabid animal.
Deep Blue Sea
Intelligence enhanced super sharks versus the scientists who made them serve as the setup of this fun horror movie, and the battle for survival is compounded by a serious storm. Granted the storm doesn’t serve as big of a role, the sharks are monstrous enough, but it does create a whole lot of problems for the humans. When the first shark attack happens, a helicopter is called in to medically evacuate the victim, but the arrival of the storm causes a ripple effect that leads to the helicopter crashing. The resulting destruction means a heavily flooded facility where the sharks can now swim freely to stalk their prey. The storm also means more help won’t be on its way anytime soon.
Rogue
Inspired by the true story of a crocodile that attacked boats in the ‘70s, adorably dubbed Sweetheart, Rogue tells of a group of river cruise tourists being marooned by an attack on their boat. The group’s only safe haven from the giant beast is a small, muddy island in the middle of the river. It’s not exactly ideal, and it’s made even worse thanks to a rising tide that will fully submerge the island by nightfall. That’s right; it doesn’t take much for mother nature to completely foil survival plans in a fight against a giant crocodile. Just high tide. It’s intense and brutal, and we’d expect nothing less from director Greg McLean (Wolf Creek, The Belko Experiment).
Bait
In this Australian-Singaporean disaster horror film, it’s a tsunami that leaves a group of people stranded in a flooded grocery story. Mid-robbery no less. The devastation to the building, flooding, and volatile tensions between people would be enough to send stress levels into overdrive, but the tsunami also trapped a few hungry great white sharks in the store, too. While the plot setup sounds outlandish and implausible, Bait is way more fun than it sounds. Plus, at least one pass of the script was written by Russell Mulcahy (Highlander), who would’ve also directed if not for prior engagements. Mulcahy is no stranger to Australian nature-based horror having directed 1984’s Razorback.
Burning Bright
As if Kelly doesn’t have enough problems to deal with between her mother’s suicide and caring for her autistic brother, someone has sealed all the doors and windows in her house and let loose a ravenous tiger. She can’t call for help, either, because a hurricane has downed all phone communication. This movie deserves more of an audience than it’s received so far, and shares the most in common with Crawl in terms of basic plot- at least on paper. A modest budgeted thriller that brings genuine suspense, and the scenes with the tiger were well done.
I was never against Sony’s initial idea to produce solo movies based on Spider-Man’s most memorable supervillains. After all, a hero is only as good as his Rogues’ Gallery is intimidating, so it stands to reason that there were plenty of dark stories to tell here.
While rushed productions like Morbius and Kraven the Hunter didn’t quite turn out as I had hoped, it’s a relief to see James Gunn and the DC Extended Universe learn the right lessons from Marvel’s flops by investing in supervillain stories that aren’t afraid to step into the horror genre.
The new trailer for James Watkins’ upcoming Clayface movie is a great example of this, as the new footage confirms our suspicions that the movie is set to be a full-on piece of body horror focusing more on telling a standalone scary story than setting up a brand.
With that in mind, I’ve decided to take a closer look at the trailer in order to find out what we can expect from this highly anticipated comic-book adaptation from hell.
So without further ado, here are four things we learned from the new Clayface trailer!
4. Matt Hagen is a Club Vesuvius Regular
A seedy nightclub owned by “former” mobster Johnny Sabatino, the comic books have established Club Vesuvius as a hotspot for criminal activity and metahuman action since 2009. Throughout the years, the club has seen everything from an attempted arson by Firefly to magical acts performed by Zatanna herself.
The trailer for Clayface appears to suggest that Vesuvius will feature prominently in this story as well, as the footage shows us several shots of Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) casually attending the club as well as a couple of more concerning moments where Gotham City Police roll up to the establishment to deal with some kind of emergency.
3. The Movie Will Not Adapt Any Single Specific Comic
As I mentioned before in my Clayface primer for horror fans who aren’t all that familiar with the character, the initial teaser for the film had me convinced that the project would be more of an adaptation of Batman: The Animated Series’ two-part episode Feat of Clay rather than any specific comic-book.
This latest trailer has only confirmed my suspicions, with Hagen’s predicament here feeling much more in line with Marv Wolfman and Michael Reaves’ sympathetic vision of the character than the more traditional criminal that we usually see in the comics. That being said, I’m curious to see how the filmmakers intend to connect this tragic version of Clayface to the more unpleasant monster we saw in Creature Commandos now that it’s been confirmed that these are indeed the same person.
2. James Watkins is Combining Practical and Digital Effects
I’ll always prefer a well-executed practical effect over CGI simply because the former is closer to the stage magic that inspired early moviemaking. That being said, there’s an undeniable artistry to well-crafted visual effects, and I’d argue that a character like Clayface requires the best of both worlds in order to be convincingly brought to life on the big screen.
I’m clearly not the only one who thinks so, as the trailer has shown us that Watkins is combining digital imagery with prosthetics and plenty of flesh-colored goop to depict Hagen’s unique brand of monstrous body horror. James Gunn had already promised us that the film would feature plenty of old-school practical effects wizardry, so it’s exciting to see that this approach in action.
1. Hagen Will Eventually Transform into Clayface’s Iconic True Form
In the comics, whenever Clayface isn’t pretending to be someone else, the character spends most of his time in his “natural” form resembling a gigantic golem-like monster. This look has certainly evolved over the years, but, at this point, most artists have settled on a vaguely humanoid shape accompanied by a gaping maw (though the villain’s terrifying re-imagining in DC’s Absolute Universe is a bit more complicated than that).
While fans were initially skeptical regarding whether or not the upcoming adaptation would even feature this admittedly outlandish design, the trailer has basically confirmed that Hagen’s condition will get progressively worse until he finally resembles the hulking monstrosity from the comics!
Be sure to comment below if you think we overlooked any interesting details in the trailer, and keep in mind that Clayface will be hitting theaters on October 23.
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