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King Kong isn't alone on 'Skull Island,' new trailer reveals

Turns out the giant ape is sharing his homeland with an underground race dubbed the Skull Crawlers, which are every bit as creepy as their name.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper

Well, that was terrifying.

The new trailer for 2017's "Kong: Skull Island" debuted Wednesday night. And if that scrappy group of humans thought it was just going to be them against the giant ape, they are bananas.

In the trailer, some South Pacific newbies (Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, John Goodman) are bombing Skull Island to help map it, because that's a brilliant idea. They soon learn from bearded island-dweller John C. Reilly, that "Kong is King," and that their bombing plan was as smart as throwing a lit match into a full gas tank.

"Kong's God on the island, but the devils live below us," Reilly's character warns. Turns out there's a creepy race of reptile-like beings that also list the island as their home address. In the trailer's best line, Reilly's character says, "I call them Skull Crawlers," then backtracks: "Never said that name out loud before, it sounds stupid now that I say it, just, you call 'em whatever you want."

The Skull Crawlers look like the offspring of a dog skeleton and Gollum, and move as creepily as Samara in "The Ring" crawling out of the TV. They look to give Kong a good fight, and pity any hapless humans who get in the way. "Kong: Skull Island" opens in theaters on March 10, 2017.

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One of the Skull Crawlers is ready for his close-up.

"Kong: Skull Island"/Screenshot by CNET