Crawler (The Descent)

infobox fictional creature
name = Crawler


caption =
classification = Cave dwelling Hominid
first = "The Descent"
last = "The Descent 2"
created by = Neil Marshall (producer)
Paul Hyett (designer)The crawlers are fictional creatures that appeared in the 2005 film "The Descent" by Neil Marshall. The crawlers were designed to be more believable than creatures of previous films, having families within a colony. Critics noted the crawlers' similarity to the creature Gollum from "Lord of the Rings". The crawlers will reappear in the upcoming sequel, "The Descent 2", directed by Jon Harris.

Conception

Director Neil Marshall first chose to have a cave as the setting for his horror film "The Descent" then decided to add the element of the crawlers, describing them as "something that could get the women, something human, but not quite". [cite news | first=Roger | last=Moore | title=Secrets unearthed: Spelunking with Neil Marshall | work=Orlando Sentinel | publisher=Tribune Company | date=2006-08-10 ] The crawlers were depicted as cavemen who never left the caves and evolved in the dark. The director included mothers and children in the colony of creatures, defining his vision, "It is a colony and I thought that was far more believable than making them the classic monsters. If they had been all male, it would have made no sense, so I wanted to create a more realistic context for them. I wanted to have this very feral, very primal species living underground, but I wanted to make them human. I didn't want to make them aliens because humans are the scariest things." [cite news | first=Nick | last=Morrison | title=Descent into hell | work=The Northern Echo | publisher=Newsquest | date=2005-07-07 ]

The crawlers were designed by Paul Hyett, a makeup and prosthetics creator.cite news | first=Alan | last=Jones | url=http://www.fangoria.com/fearful_feature.php?id=6750 | title=The Darker Depths of "The Descent 2" | work=Fangoria | publisher=Starlog Group | accessdate=2008-06-26 ] Production designer Simon Bowles said that the crawler design had started out as "wide-eyed and more creature-like", but the design shifted toward a more human appearance. Crawlers originally had pure white skin, but the look was adjusted to seem grubbier. The skin was originally phosphorescent in appearance, but the effect was too bright and reflective in the darkened set, so the adjustment was made for them to blend in shadows. [cite journal | first=David E | last=Williams | title=Creepy crawlers | journal=American Cinematographer | publisher=American Society of Cinematographers | volume=87 | issue=9 | month=September | year=2006 | pages=18,20,22,24 ] The director barred the film's all-female cast from seeing the actors in full crawler make-up until their first appearance on screen. Actress Natalie Mendoza said of the effect, "When the moment came, I nearly wet my pants! I was running around afterwards, laughing in this hysterical way and trying to hide the fact that I was pretty freaked out. Even after that scene, we never really felt comfortable with them." [cite news | first=Guy | last=Davis | title=Natalie's a gung-ho alpha female | work=Geelong Advertiser | publisher=News Corporation | date=2006-12-16 ]

The crawlers will reappear in "The Descent 2", a sequel by Jon Harris with the first film's director Neil Marshall as executive producer. For the sequel, Hyett improved the camouflaging ability of the crawlers' skin tones to deliver better scares. According to Hyett, "Jon wanted them more viciously feral, inbred, scarred and deformed, with rows of sharklike teeth for ripping flesh." A charnel house was designed for the crawlers as well as a set that the crew called the "Crawler Crapper".

Description

Rene Rodriguez of "The Miami Herald" described the crawlers as "blind, snarling cave-dwellers, looking much like Gollum's bigger kin". [cite news | first=Rene | last=Rodriguez | title=Down deep, it's a real fright | work=The Miami Herald | publisher=The McClatchy Company | date=2006-08-04 ] Douglas Tseng of "The Straits Times" also noted that the crawlers looked similar to Gollum, being a cross between the creature and the vampiric Reapers from "Blade II". [cite news | first=Douglas | last=Tseng | title= Hold on tight, "The Descent" is deep | work=The Straits Times | publisher=Singapore Press Holdings | date=2005-12-07 ] David Germain of the Associated Press noted of the crawlers, " [They] have evolved to suit their environment—eyes blind because of the darkness in which they dwell, skin slimy and gray, ears batlike to channel their super-hearing." [cite news | first=David | last=Germain | title='Descent' takes viewers into the depths of horror | work=The Press of Atlantic City | publisher=Associated Press | date=2006-08-04 ]

Reception

Lawrence Toppman of "The Charlotte Observer" thought a weakness of "The Descent" was the failure of the writer to explain the evolution of the creature, though he said, "Their clicking and howling, used for echolocation and communication, makes them more alien; this otherness gives humans permission to mutilate them without seeming too disgusting to be sympathetic." [cite news | first=Lawrence | last=Toppman | title=A gripping 'Descent' into depths of horror | work=The Charlotte Observer | publisher=The McClatchy Company | date=2006-08-04 ] Michael Wilmington of the "Chicago Tribune" thought that the crawlers should have been left out of the film, believing, "Watching those gray, slithering beings chasing and biting the women makes it hard to maintain any suspension of disbelief." [cite news | first=Michael | last=Wilmington | title='Descent' chills deflated by absurd plot elements | work=Chicago Tribune | publisher=Tribune Company | date=2006-08-04 ]

References