THE CRAWLING Trailer Teases a Twisted Psychological Horror Film About Alien Encounters and Losing Control
What would you do if something entered your bedroom in the middle of the night, paralyzed your body, and left you completely helpless? That's the terrifying idea at the center of The Crawling, a psychological horror film from writer and director Christian Everhard that explores alien encounters, identity, and the fear of losing control of your own body.
We've got a trailer to share for the indie horror project, which takes its inspiration from a creepy real-life experience Everhard had while staying in a remote cabin in the woods with his girlfriend.
While lying awake one night, he spotted a mysterious flash of light outside their window. With the nearest house roughly ten miles away, he couldn't explain where it came from. His imagination took over, and he began wondering what would happen if an alien entered the room and rendered him powerless.
That frightening thought eventually became The Crawling, a story that takes the familiar terror of alien abduction and gives it a disturbing psychological twist.
The film follows Mike, a man who has built his identity around control, emotional restraint, and traditional masculinity. When he experiences something beyond his understanding, everything he believes about himself begins to fall apart.
There's also Emma, a mysterious character whose behavior shifts between comforting, seductive, and sinister. Her unpredictable nature adds another layer of tension as Mike struggles to understand what's happening to him.
Rather than focusing entirely on extraterrestrial threats, Everhard uses the horror to explore what happens when someone loses the ability to control their body, their identity, and the world around them.
The filmmaker cites Roman Polanski, David Cronenberg, Brandon Cronenberg, and Paul Thomas Anderson as creative influences, combining psychological tension, body horror, and emotionally intense storytelling.
The film's visual approach also changes as Mike's situation deteriorates. What begins with controlled, carefully composed imagery inspired by 1970s filmmaking gradually becomes more chaotic and disorienting. The sound design follows a similar progression, using strange frequencies, mechanical noises, and organic sounds to pull viewers into Mike's increasingly terrifying experience.
Everhard assembled a cast that includes Will Brittain, Katherine Hughes, and Robert Lewis Stephenson, all of whom played an important role in developing their characters.
Speaking about the collaboration, Everhard shared: "All three of my actors were incredibly creative collaborators. Will Brittain, Katherine Hughes, and Robert Lewis Stephenson all came prepared with smart questions and insights.
“I met with them each individually, and after lots of long conversations (and several beers), we really honed in on their character. Most of my job was to nudge a little bit here, a little bit there because they showed up extremely prepared and ready to leave it all on the screen."
Everhard's love of horror goes back to childhood, when he watched Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller on VHS and became fascinated by Rick Baker's special effects and John Landis' work directing the iconic music video.
His path to filmmaking wasn't exactly conventional. Along the way, he spent years traveling the world, studying Kung Fu in China, competing in extreme sports, and eventually returning to entertainment through a documentary project he sold to the Travel Channel.
When it comes to horror, what keeps him motivated is the opportunity to get a strong reaction from an audience.
"I could list one hundred inspirations, but probably the single biggest inspiration, the thing that keeps me writing and climbing the hill of making movies, is the feeling of watching an audience jump, scream, gag, laugh or cheer at something my team and I have created."
Some of Everhard's favorite horror films include The Exorcist, The Thing, and An American Werewolf in London, which he watched repeatedly as a kid. Those are some pretty awesome movies to grow up on, and their influence makes The Crawling an interesting project for horror fans to check out.
Everhard is already developing his next project and hopes The Crawling will help open doors for more horror, thriller, and crime stories.
For aspiring filmmakers, he also offered some straightforward advice: "Execute. Execute. Execute. You always hear from people with ideas, or things they're gonna do, but you have to execute and get it done. Don't wait for perfection. Don't wait for someone else to give you permission. Just do it. Then do it again."
The Crawling looks like an intriguing little nightmare for fans of alien abduction stories and psychological body horror. I particularly like the idea of using an extraterrestrial encounter to explore someone's fear of losing control over everything they think defines them.
Check out the trailer below and let us know what you think!
This trailer is shared in collaboration with the FilmQuest Film Festival, where we are looking to expose some of the great indie genre films and shorts that filmmakers are creating.