Sam Raimi Says CRAWL 2 Finally Has a Real Shot at Happening
Crawl hit theaters in 2019 with a story idea that sounded like pure drive-in madness with a hurricane, a flooded crawl space, and hungry alligators. What could’ve been disposable creature-feature fluff turned into a fun nerve-rattling survival horror film that audiences enjoyed!
Since then, fans have been waiting for word on a sequel. Now, Sam Raimi is finally offering a real update, and it sounds like movement might actually be happening.
Produced by Raimi and directed by Alexandre Aja, Crawl followed a young woman, played by Kaya Scodelario, and her injured father, portrayed by Barry Pepper, as they fought to survive both nature and a pack of very angry gators.
The film leaned hard into tension rather than excess, using cramped environments, sharp pacing, and character-driven stakes to keep audiences locked in. That approach paid off in a big way.
Against a $15 million budget, the film hauled in over $91 million worldwide. Despite that success, a follow-up never materialized. According to Raimi, it wasn’t a creative issue. It was a studio one.
“We’ve been trying to get a go from the studio, and they changed hands, Paramount Pictures did, and now the new group that’s come in I’ve worked with before, the ladies and gentlemen that are great at development, and they’re interested in Crawl 2,” Raimi explained during a recent interview with The Wrap. “That’s all I could really say right now, is now I’ve got a new hope to make it.”
The shakeup Raimi is referring to stems from the Paramount-Skydance merger, which led to a full reset at the studio level. That reset may finally be opening the door for a sequel that’s been circling for years.
Raimi also addressed why Crawl 2 has been such a tough sell, saying: “It’s a little bit, I think, embarrassing to make an alligator in the basement picture,” Raimi added.
“I don’t know if that’s what their lofty ambitions were, but I think there’s a crowd that loves those kinds of films, if they’re well-made and honestly trying to make this suspenseful and scary and get to know the characters, if they’re really trying to do that, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Yes, it’s a B movie, but it’s a blast. I really like that kind of picture.”
That mindset is exactly why Crawl still holds up. The movie never tried to outdo itself with spectacle. Instead, it focused on dread, timing, and emotional investment. Aja treated the environment like a character, letting water levels, shadows, and silence do just as much work as the alligators themselves.
There’s also plenty of room to expand the concept. While the original film kept things painfully tight, the idea of humans versus predators during extreme weather can stretch into all kinds of locations. Aja has previously hinted that the formula could evolve without losing what made the first movie so effective.
What makes this moment especially interesting is Raimi’s current hot streak. Send Help has been tearing through the box office, pulling in $53.7 million globally in its first ten days.
The R-rated survival thriller topped the domestic box office for two straight weekends and landed a Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s a clear reminder that Raimi still knows exactly how to deliver crowd-pleasing horror that doesn’t feel disposable.
That success gives him real leverage, and studios tend to listen when a filmmaker is actively delivering hits. If there was ever a time for Crawl 2 to finally get off the ground, this is it.
For now, fans will have to stay patient. But for the first time in a long while, it feels like the alligators might actually be swimming back into theaters.