The Wildest Moment In Kraven The Hunter Was Totally Improvised
“It was a silent scream.”
Sony’s live-action Spider-Verse is a franchise that most would rather put behind them, but it does boast its fair share of fun, if not worthwhile, moments. Whether it be the so-bad-its-good line readings in Madame Web or the go-for-broke hijinks in the Venom trilogy, the franchise hasn’t been a total wash. There’s even something to like in Sony’s most recent superhero offering, Kraven the Hunter.
Sure, Kraven lacks the memeability that redeemed its predecessors, but it does make up for its humorlessness with a truly committed performance from Alessandro Nivola. He plays Alexei Sytsevich, aka the Rhino, the film’s primary antagonist. Though he doesn’t spend much time in the form most comic fans may recognize, allowing Nivola to explore the character’s human form is a surprisingly good choice in the long run. Some of the film’s best moments are born from Nivola’s improvisation, including a silent scream that’s quickly becoming Kraven’s weirdest — and funniest — scene.
The Rhino spends most of his time in Kraven trying to take out the eponymous hunter (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Midway through the film, one of his henchmen reports that his latest attempt to slay Kraven has failed. The Rhino responds by letting out a bizarre, animalistic scream. Per Nivola, his outburst was improvised in the moment — but it made the cast and crew laugh so much that it made its way to the final cut.
Nivola’s Rhino performed a “silent scream” that took on new life in Kraven’s final cut.
“The way I performed it was totally silent. It was a silent scream,” Nivola told The Hollywood Reporter. “When I did it, everybody laughed on set. It was so weird, but they all loved it. We kept referring to it as the ‘silent scream moment.’ So I kept asking [Kraven director] J.C. [Chandor] during the edit if the silent scream was still in the cut, and he said, ‘Yeah, of course. We would never lose the silent scream.’”
Chador was fond of Nivola’s choice, but he did tweak his scream in post-production, adding effects to give it a “bird-like” sound. “When I saw the movie, it had that guttural voice catch, which I don’t think was as effective as it would’ve been otherwise,” added Nivola.
We may never know what Nivola’s original scream sounded like (deleted scene, maybe?) but the version we get in Kraven is still plenty effective, if baffling. It’s one of the funniest moments in the film, and just one of Nivola’s many show-stealing scenes. Kraven itself doesn’t exactly justify its existence, but it does manage to avoid the Sony-verse’s worst habit: a forgettable villain. Nivola is great as the Rhino, even if the film around him doesn’t rise to his level. The franchise likely won’t continue beyond Kraven, but at least it gave Nivola an opportunity to go for broke.
