Following Films Podcast: Directing Crawlers - Ángel Gómez Hernández on Practical Effects, Spiders & Horror Comedy

 In today's episode, I sit down with director Ángel Gómez Hernández to talk about his fun, creepy horror film Crawlers. We discuss the inspiration behind shifting from supernatural horror to a more tangible, comic-book-style creature feature reminiscent of classic Joe Dante or Sam Raimi movies. We also chat about casting lead actress Matilda Lutz, the intense process of shooting long takes with imaginary spiders, and the balance of real spiders filmed on blue screens and visual effects that brought this thrilling roller-coaster ride to life.

Crawlers is in theatres now! I hope you enjoy the show

Host: How are you today?

Ángel Gómez Hernández: Hi, hello.

Host: Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to do this. I appreciate it.

Ángel Gómez Hernández: My pleasure. [laughs]

Host: So, I am 50 years old, and so I was raised on going to video stores and going through the horror section, and seeing films that made a promise based on a cover that they rarely held up their end of the bargain. It was, you know, but this is one of those rare movies where there's a promise that's made by your poster that 100% pays off, and it's actually much creepier than you would expect by the poster, and by even the trailer if you go back and watch it. And it's just thank you for actually making something that lives up to what it sold us.

Ángel Gómez Hernández: Thank you, thank you for for your opinion, for your words.

Host: So, what was it that drew you to this project?

Ángel Gómez Hernández: Eh, I mean, I received the script like a two years and a half ago, something like that. I received the script from the producers, well, actually from my agent, uh, because they received the script from the producer and and they wanting me to read that. And when I read that, I was, you know, I was super excited because I really enjoyed the script. I thought it was extremely fun. Um, I considered that the script, you know, was offering or creating or or or or, you know, there were like many, many great moments, like, you know, for a director to really have fun with the camera and with the setting, and with the, you know, suspense, or the way you stretch the tension with these little creepy spiders. I thought it was it was very fun. Um, and on the other hand, on the other hand, um in my career, in my two previous movies, I I had developed a more supernatural kind of horror, um and I was very curious about, you know, trying something more direct, more more more more, you know, less supernatural, more tangible horror, kind of horror. And those were probably the main reason that, you know, made me say yes. And of course that I was going to work with Thunder Road, Skarsgard, and Basil Iwanick, that was a dream for me.

Host: Well, it uh I'm glad you used the word fun, cuz that's how I would 100% describe the movie, cuz it is. It has like a like a feeling like Gremlins or something like that, or those Joe Dante movies that have they're scary, but they have a tongue-in-cheek about them where there, you know, if you watch the scene with the bag of potato chips in this film, it's one of those set pieces that's just it's I had a smile on my face the whole time. It's creepy as hell, but it just it's so much fun.

Ángel Gómez Hernández: I'm glad to hear that, because that was the the the you know, the the the goal, that was the the intention behind that. You know, we wanted to do something fun, something intense, something fast, and and even something, you know, my my intention was to do even some goofy moments in terms of camping intentionally, because I love this kind of Joe Dante, Sam Raimi's kind of humor, that sometimes you are scared and because of the thing that is scaring you, you are also laughing, because it's like super over the top and and that mixture of sensations was something that I wanted to that I was aiming for, so.

Host: Well, I think that um to get that right, you know, you can move the camera in certain ways, you can do all these things, but you really have to get your casting right in the film to sell that. And if you don't get your Serena, your movie's not going to work, cuz it all falls on her shoulders. So I think she's wonderful in the film. Matilda just crushed this role.

Ángel Gómez Hernández: Yeah, she's amazing. She's amazing. I I remember when I received the email from the producers telling me that Matilda was interested on talking to me. I was like, please, I I need to do that because I was a big fan of of of, you know, her movies and of of, you know, of her as an actress. And and it was great. I think I think she's the perfect Serena because she she handled very well the character and and and the way we worked together on set was great. She's super, you know, always willing to explore the character, willing to to for new challenge. We we were working on very long takes because that's the way I wanted to feel I wanted to film the movie in long takes, not necessarily to have like sequence shots, just to have like a footage that looks something real, organic. And if you remember the camera is like very it's very energetic, the camera like like like focusing, defocusing, zooming, zooming out, handheld movement. I wanted that and the purpose behind that was to, you know, or or or or the way to do that was to work on long takes from here, then from there and then from there, but covering the full scene. And that's a challenge for the actors and especially for for for Matilda because she was the main actress and the main character, sorry, and and she had to interact with different spiders throughout a four, five minutes of a take, reacting to a spider that is jumping that is not there, because it was going to be be effects ultimately and things like that and she did a great, great, great job in my opinion.

Host: Oh, she was wonderful. But you actually brought up something I wanted to ask about. Um, how much of this is practical versus visual effects? Because I think it looks phenomenal and there's stuff that I'm sure is practical, that's probably a visual effect in here.

Ángel Gómez Hernández: Yeah, it's it's most of them it's a visual effects. We have some practicals, we have some props very strategically placed like because at the end of the day a prop is a, you know, an static thing so so we knew that we knew that was not going to work for for for most of the shots. But um most of them are VFX, meaning some of them are CGI, and other of the VFX spider are real spiders put there by composing process, but they were originally real spiders filmed against a blue blue screen. So so that's great because I wanted to have real spiders in the movie. I wanted to have them on set, but that was a crazy idea. But at least I at least I had my real spiders, um filmed against the blue screen and having there, you know, putting there in the putting them in the empty plate. So so most of them are real, real spider actually filmed.

Host: So when you're shooting those plates, are you using that as an establishing shot and saying, okay, this is the movement we have, we're starting with that. So now we'll use the actors to go around and work with that movement? Okay.

Ángel Gómez Hernández: Sometimes it's an empty plate like an insert and is the POV of the character or maybe it's just an insert not a POV, but it's just an insert that we use as a dramatic irony like to show to the audience like the spider is getting into the shoes or whatever. And in other in other other times it's like it's the same shot of the actor and the spiders are around her in the same framing, so they have to react to things that are not there and and and, you know, it was it was very fun, it was very it was very very very intense process. I repeat the stressing because, you know, I was used to work with everything real happening in real time in front of the camera, so so for me to to be, you know, relying on imagination and something that will be months later, but not now, now we don't have nothing and we don't have anything in the shot, was tricky for me, but but you know, I I was vice for for very professional people.

Host: And how different is it the way that you imagined it in your mind's eye versus what the final product that we see is?

Ángel Gómez Hernández: It's it's never 100% the way you imagine in any of the cases, so but but here, I think because being VFX surprisingly enough, it's like you have even more control because you have months to shape everything. Okay, I don't like this kind of hair, I don't like this kind of texture. So let's keep trying, trying, trying until we get that. So I'm pretty happy about about the final result because I was I was scared about the VFX because being a director I was not used to work with them. I was like, you know, I had a lot of respect of that because I knew that we were going to live or die depending of the spiders, you know, it doesn't matter the rest, if the spiders are not working or or they look fake or whatever, it's it's not going to work the movie. So so I I was, you know, tense about that. But as soon as we started working even with Leandro and Raul, the, you know, the the VFX supervisor and the people from VFX, everything started to, you know, be at the right place and for me it was uh you know, I was calmer after that and seeing that, okay, we are we are in good hands.

Host: Well, it it you're right, that if the spiders don't work, the movie really doesn't work because there has to be that threat, and if it felt phony, you could have incredible performances that can sell their terror, but then you see what they're scared of and you're like, okay.

Ángel Gómez Hernández: Yeah, and that's so abstract because we were finishing the editing and we didn't even know if we had a good movie or not, because it's like, okay, that's that never happens before in my life, like if I finish the editing, okay, I know that now the music is gonna elevate everything and I know the color is gonna elevate everything, but at least we have something here that you can be proud of or or be safe that it's gonna like, but but uh it was tricky to deal with that, you know, in a in a abstract process.

Host: You know, there's a a lot of horror films you can settle and say, like, there's this one scene, you can watch this movie for the one thing, and I think you have four of those in this movie that you can hang your hat on and say, there's four moments in this movie you absolutely have to check out, no matter what else that if you enjoy horror films, this is going to be something that just watch it for this at the very least. But you also have a film that to what you're saying, that is fun and funny and you actually care about your lead and you, you know, really are pulling for her in this, which is kind of a little bit of a magic trick that you actually care about these characters in addition to the ride they're going on.

Ángel Gómez Hernández: Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. I mean, I I I I yeah, I have like two or three moments that I I I will really enjoy them if I were an audience watching this movie, like because I think it, you know, it's the kind of thing that I will be looking for if I go to a theatre watching a spider fun popcorn movie, you know? I I was not very worried about being completely realistic or or things like that, because it's like, guys, we are making a spark healer spiders movie, let's have fun, let's make crazy things. Oh, how many spiders are there? Are there too much? No, I mean, it's like too many of them? No, no, it's like, let's let's have fun, let's make something like a comic book, like, you know, over-the-top, crazy, fun, and you laugh, and you know, that that's what, you know, I would like like the perfect audience for this movie is somebody that they don't want to take this extremely serious, because if they want to take this like, of course not, this is just to have fun, this is just to disconnect, have some jumpscares, have some laughs, and enjoy the journey, the crazy journey that we have created in this roller coaster, fun roller coaster.

Host: Well, I this is definitely a movie that I highly recommend people see in a theatre, because I just I would love to see this with an audience, you know, having watched it with me and my wife, I had a blast, but I would love to feel the energy of that room going just in those particular moments that I'm thinking of and just to feel like that kind of like where people jump and then there's the laughter immediately afterwards because we're all excited. Yeah, this is going to be an audience pleaser, for sure.

Ángel Gómez Hernández: Yeah, I can't wait. I can't wait to watch it with people, because I haven't seen that with people before. Well, no, with my family, of course, but but and they reacted, but you never know like are they reacting because they're my family and they want to please me? [laughs] No, but it's like I saw I saw all the tests screening that they did with audience, I saw the footage filming them and then reacting, and it was one of the probably most, you know, exciting moment of my career, like seeing those people reacting for real of uh what is was happening on the screen and this weekend is the first time I'm going to watch the movie in a theater with people and I'm very nervous, but I'm very excited to see that, because I I need to see how the people react in in all together, you know what I mean? Like, like what kind of what kind of vibe, what kind of atmosphere the movie creates in the in the air, you know?

Host: Well, I this is the type of movie that made me fall in love with going to movies in the first place and, you know, there's a place for horror films that are telling something much deeper about the world and have, you know, their their this is just something that absolutely knows what it is. It's just fun. This is this is something that I I want to throw on my shelf and I want to be able to watch it for decades to come. So, congratulations, man. You got a special one here. I really enjoyed it.

Ángel Gómez Hernández: Thank you so much, Christopher. Thank you so much. Nice to meet you. Thank you for taking the time today.

Host: Nice to meet you. Bye.

Ángel Gómez Hernández: Thank you, Christopher. Thank you, appreciate you setting us up. Thank you.