Live tarantulas and a professional animal wrangler were part of the Crawlers promotion at Screamfest on Oct. 14. A man in a yellow hazmat-style suit walked through the concession area with a clear box strapped over his head, the spiders crawling inside as he carried popcorn. Attendee accounts identified Jules Sylvester as the wrangler involved.
DiscussingFilm posted the video on X that day. The R-rated creature feature had its North American premiere at the festival and opens in theaters nationwide Friday, Oct. 16.
Serena, the manager of an apartment building placed under quarantine during an infestation of venomous spiders, is played by Matilda Lutz. Director Ángel Gómez Hernández built the swarm mostly through props, visual effects and a single animatronic, though co-star Melina Matthews said real spiders were also used. The spiders Lutz had to crush were filled with “paste made out of jam and garlic paste,” she told iHorror.
Lutz says the shoot got to her anyway. “I was not afraid of spiders before I got the script and started working,” she said. Hernández admits he’s scared of them too, though he told iHorror, “I’m even more afraid of cockroaches.”
He made peace with his, at least. After the shoot he found webs upstairs at home and decided to let the spiders stay.
“They’ve worked so hard, they’ve taught me so much,” he told Latin Times. “Maybe we can live together.”
Screamfest runs Oct. 6–15 at the TCL Chinese 6 in Hollywood.
