Black Water: Abyss

Andrew Traucki, director of the somewhat acclaimed creatures features "Black Water" and "The Reef", brings a sequel (only in name) to his first killer croc hooray. I remember watching "Black Water" way back when, and it worked on suspense, the limited location, the one woman's show, though still lacking some necessary sauce. This next part seems to be also relying a lot on suspense and fear of a force that's lurking unseen - the movie largely does so with lackluster energy, and a newcomer filler is a fair amount of melodrama, which didn't feel very welcome to me.

Like many similar movies, "Abyss" kicks off with a pair of unfortunate tourists falling prey to the croc of the caves, it will be in his home we're going to spend most of the screentime. A home too plain, too evenly lit, barely succeeding to feel claustrophobic, consequently struggling to establish an atmosphere. Our protagonists are 5 rather stereotypical movie friends with typical plot problems and arches - one has to be prepared for soapy notes throughout. Story's simple and slow, ending does not hit any nails on the head, and all in all there's a predictable story riddled with minor bugs. While all this may be so, a good portion of people are probably most excited about the action and croc himself. Well, he hides. A lot. There's some cgi and some practical effects, and I'm not entirely sure about the partial usage of real crocodiles as it's known about the first "Black Water" flick. "Abyss" is a low budget feature, and action describes that, not the worst, but mostly heavily edited with close-ups, shaky cam, all kinds of cheaper substitute techniques. It's a killer reptile movie that's above the syfy-type, but below the better examples like "Rogue" or "Crawl", though I'll admit the latter is not a lot about that realism. The cast consists of little known names who do a decent job, but little of anything manages to impress as the growingly tedious nature of "Black Water: Abyss" marches on for 90 minutes.

I felt a certain disappointment for an anticipated movie coming from a guy who's biggest love and mission seems to be animal/nature/creature horror genre. If you have a lot of patience and are looking for utter realism in this genre movies, it might be worth giving "Abyss" a spin. My rating: 4/10.

Makes you want to root for the monster. Really quite a stupid movie with a soundtrack that sounded more like Love Story than a monster flick.

If your bored and have nothing else to watch then by all means go and watch this film, you could do worse but if you have other things to watch and miss this little title then don't panic your not missing much. I was hoping this would be much more edge of your seat tension but there was none. That's right no tension at all, in fact the last thirty minute I was praying the film to end. Now don't get me wrong, the cast and the story did nothing wrong but the film itself became boring quickly, nothing happened and that my dear reader is where the film falters. A basic adventure film, not a horror. Just about four stars.

This is not too bad and the crocodiles look real. It's your standard crocodile thriller about a group of friends going spelunking and get trapped in a cave with a hungry crocodile but it's quite well done and the crocodile is shown just enough and it's not an exaggerated monster movie. There's some silly friendship melodrama but overall it was an enjoyable creature feature.

'Black Water: Abyss' seemed like an odd title to me, but I didn't click on to the fact it was probably a sequel until reading it was after seeing it. Usually I like to see originals before I watch their sequels, however in this case I don't suspect it will matter too much. An opening scene for any horror/thriller is so important. It sets the tone for everything to come. The opening scene is this film is about as bland as they come. Almost no creativity or effort on the part of the writers went into it. Everything that happens is as bland and predictable as you could possibly imagine. The film does get slightly better as it goes along, but it never reaches any great heights.

I hate it when a character in a movie is said to be pregnant early on. It's supposed to make us care more about the fate of that character, but all it does it make them feel extremely safe. It does play into a side plot later on, but the movie would be so much better without it being there.

The plot of the movie is basically a group being stuck in a cave, with a crocodile running rampant. That sounds like a fun movie. I was hoping for something more along the lines of 'The Decent'. But in 'The Decent' they felt genuinely lost underground and like they could be miles from getting out and only digging themselves deeper. It created an extreme sense of claustrophobia for the audience. In 'Black Water: Abyss' however, it feels like they have only just entered the cave when the trouble begins, and like they are always very close to being able to get out.

There are a few scenes that create some genuine tension and the effects with the crocodile are quite well done throughout. Caving in Northern Australia sounds like the worst thing in the world to me and is something I'll never do, but I can handle watching a film about it. There isn't a whole lot to recommend about this one sadly.