''The Crawlers'' (also known as ''Troll 3'', ''Creepers'' or ''Contamination .7'') is a 1991 Italian

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

directed by Fabrizio Laurenti under the pseudonym Martin Newlin. Some parts of the film were also directed by producer

Joe D'Amato Aristide Massaccesi (15 December 1936 – 23 January 1999), known professionally as Joe D'Amato, was an Italian film director, producer, cinematographer, and screenwriter who worked in many genres (westerns, decamerotici, peplum, war films, ...

, uncredited.

Plot

After a small town

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

plant dumps hazardous waste into a forest surrounding the town, people begin dying in increasingly gruesome ways. No one can pinpoint the source of the deaths until the

EPA The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

investigates; the forests' roots were mutated due to the waste, causing them to kill and eat people. The plants attempt to break loose, but the EPA bulldozes the plants, killing them, but leaving the possibility that some plants may have survived.

Cast

Mary Sellers __NOTOC__ Wanja Mary Sellers (born September 3, 1962) is an American-Italian actress and director, known for her performances in Italian horror films. Early life Wnanja Mary Sellers was born on September 3, 1962 in Nairobi, Kenya. Career She re ...

as Josie * Jason Saucier as Matt * Bubba Reeves as Taylor * Chelsi Stahr as Susan * Vince O' Neil as Sheriff

Production

Filming

Filming began at summer in 1990 and wrapped in summer 1991. The film was mostly filmed in

Porterville, Utah Porterville is an unincorporated community in Morgan County, Utah, United States. Geography Porterville is located at the south end of Morgan County, four miles southwest of Morgan. It is situated at a junction between Hardscrabble Canyon and ...

, where ''

Troll 2 ''Troll 2'' is a 1990 horror film directed by Claudio Fragasso (under the pseudonym Drake Floyd) and starring Michael Stephenson, George Hardy, Connie McFarland, and Jason Wright. Although produced under the title ''Goblins'', the American ...

'' was also filmed.

Title clarification

''The Crawlers'' is also known by the titles ''Troll 3'', ''Creepers'' and ''Contamination .7''. Despite the ''Troll 3'' title, the film has no narrative connections to ''

Troll A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...

'' or ''

'', the latter of which itself has no narrative connections to ''Troll''. ''The Crawlers'' does not feature

troll A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...

s, and does not share any cast members with either ''Troll'' film. It is also unconnected to the Italian science fiction horror film ''

Contamination Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element that spoils, corrupts, infects, makes unfit, or makes inferior a material, physical body, natural environment, workplace, etc. Types of contamination W ...

''. D'Amato's fantasy film ''

Quest for the Mighty Sword ''Quest for the Mighty Sword'' (also known as ''Ator III: The Hobgoblin'', ''The Hobgoblin'', or ''Troll 3'') is a 1990 Italian fantasy adventure film directed by Joe D'Amato. It is the fourth and final film in the ''Ator'' film series. Plot ...

'' was released as ''Troll 3'' in Germany, so these two films have been confused in some reference sources.

Release

Originally slated for theatrical release in the United States in 1992, the film ended up instead as a

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...

release (as ''The Crawlers'') in 1993 by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.

Home media

Scream Factory Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...

(under license from

MGM Home Entertainment Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment LLC (d/b/a MGM Home Entertainment and formerly known as MGM Home Video, MGM/CBS Home Video and MGM/UA Home Video) is the home video division of the American media company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. History 1 ...

) released the film on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

for the first time under the title ''Contamination .7'', along with ''The Dungeonmaster'', ''Catacombs'' and ''Cellar Dweller'', in a 4 Horror Movie marathon collection on October 29, 2013. The film received a

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

release by

, again under the title ''Contamination .7'' in April 2017.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Crawlers Film Films directed by Joe D'Amato Films shot in Utah English-language Italian films Italian science fiction horror films Natural horror films 1990s English-language films Films scored by Carlo Maria Cordio