Crawl 2 Heads to Flooded New York as Mason Gooding and Emily Rudd Join Cast
Alexandre Aja is heading back into alligator-infested waters.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the filmmaker behind High Tension, The Hills Have Eyes and Crawl is returning to direct Crawl 2, with Mason Gooding (Heart Eyes, Scream) and Emily Rudd (Fear Street, One Piece) leading an all-new cast.
Rather than continuing the story of the original film’s survivors, the sequel will introduce a fresh group of characters facing a terrifying new nightmare. This time, the action moves away from hurricane-ravaged Florida and into a partially submerged New York City, where floodwaters and lurking predators create an entirely different kind of survival horror.
While specific plot details remain tightly under wraps, the change of location immediately conjures memories of the long-running urban legend about alligators inhabiting New York’s sewers, as well as Lewis Teague’s cult 1980 creature feature Alligator. Exactly how Aja plans to use the flooded city setting remains to be seen, but it offers the potential for a much larger and more unpredictable playground than the claustrophobic confines of the first film.
Released in 2019, Crawl became one of the year’s biggest surprise horror hits. The film starred Kaya Scodelario as Haley Keller, a competitive swimmer who returns to her family home during a Category 5 hurricane to rescue her injured father, played by Barry Pepper. What begins as a desperate rescue mission quickly turns into a relentless fight for survival when the pair become trapped beneath the house with several enormous, aggressive alligators.
Critics praised the film for its stripped-back premise, relentless pacing and expertly sustained tension. Rather than relying on elaborate mythology or excessive spectacle, Crawl focused on simple survival, combining disaster movie thrills with creature-feature horror. Aja’s direction, Maxime Alexandre’s rain-soaked cinematography and the convincing visual effects helped turn a straightforward concept into one of the most entertaining horror films of 2019.
Audiences responded just as enthusiastically. Produced on a modest $13 million budget, Crawl went on to gross more than $91 million worldwide, making it one of the year’s most profitable horror releases. Unsurprisingly, conversations about a sequel began almost immediately after its theatrical success.
Although Crawl 2 introduces entirely new protagonists, Alexandre Aja’s return behind the camera should reassure fans hoping the sequel retains the suspense and intensity that made the original such a success. Rather than simply repeating the same formula, moving the action to a flooded urban environment suggests the filmmakers are aiming to expand the concept while preserving its survival-horror roots.
The screenplay has been written by Andrew Deutschman and Jason Pagan, whose previous credits include Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, alongside Alexandre Aja and longtime collaborator Grégory Levasseur.
Behind the scenes, the sequel reunites several of the creative forces behind the original film. Sam Raimi, Craig Flores and Alexandre Aja are producing, with Grégory Levasseur and Zainab Azizi serving as executive producers.
No release date has yet been announced, and Universal has yet to reveal further story details. However, with Aja returning, a fresh cast led by Mason Gooding and Emily Rudd, and a dramatically different setting, Crawl 2 is already shaping up to be a very different beast from its predecessor—while still promising plenty of razor-sharp teeth lurking beneath the floodwaters.
