"The mind fills the void," explains Dr. Sabela Mendez, a cultural psychologist at the University of Santiago de Compostela. "The classic Santa Compaña was a warning against leaving your door unlocked. The Nightcrawler is a warning about the isolation of the hyper-connected driver. You are alone in your metal box, scrolling through social media, yet you are passing through a land that remembers the wolf. The crawler is the guilt of the asphalt. It is the ghost of the Galician peasant, reduced to an animal by modernity."
Naturally, the rationalists have had their say. The Galician Association of Cryptozoology (a real, albeit sleepy, organization) has analyzed the available footage. Their conclusion is disappointingly terrestrial: