Black Water

"Black Water" is one of the most tense films I have viewed in a long time. The story moves fast as it follows three tourists (all great actors) into a swamp on a tour with a butch tour guide on a small boat. Soon after dropping anchor in a remote area of the swamp, they are flipped over by something huge in the water.

Hastily, the three manage to make it into a tall tree nearby as they realize that a crocodile has attacked them. Throughout the next two days, they have to desperately try to escape from the crocodile's evil watchful eye, and he doesn't seem to want to go away. The movie drags just a tad bit, but what can you expect from the setting and the limited budget? It's so much better than "Primeval" and other recent crocodile/ underwater predator thrillers. The tension is heavy, and all three leads give terrific performances. Truly chilling, this movie struck a deep chord of claustrophobic fear in me. Apparently based on true events.

Black Water (2007)

**** (out of 4)

Australian horror film about two sisters (Diana Glenn, Maeve Dermody) and one of their boyfriends (Andy Rodoreda) who decide to take a guided tour down a river where they can fish and see crocodiles. Once out in the water and far away from land, their boat comes under attack by a large croc and soon the guide is dead and the three friends are stuck in a tree without much hope for survival. This film was clearly influenced by Open Water even though this film too is based on true events. I enjoyed Open Water but thought it had several problems, which could have been fixed and the problems I had with that film aren't in this one and I must say I think this film is the best horror movie I've seen in many, many years. off the top of my head I can't think of another movie that had my blood ice cold throughout it. There are at least five long scenes in this film where my blood was cold, the hair was standing up on my neck and I was curled up on the couch in actually terror. I've never had a movie effect me this much as I've seen so many that very few are able to get to me but this one actually did and boy was it a great feeling. I must say this film is a real joy as this genre has forgotten about scares and now basically goes for mindless gore. That's not the case here because each minute of this movie is meant to make you feel worried and put you in suspense. The execution is top-notch and the direction is downright flawless and never hits a bad note. The film runs just over 90-minute and there isn't much time given to the viewer to let them breathe because the film builds suspense every minute from start to finish. The film has a simple but very effective music score and the cinematography is great as well. Another big plus are the performances, which are excellent by the three leads. We don't get to spend too much time with them before the attack starts but it doesn't take long to really fall in love with all three characters and you can't help but want to see them make it out alive. Caring for them so much is another reason the suspense works because we don't want to see anything bad happen to them. Dermody really sticks out and I hope to see her in future movies. I really went into this film not knowing what to expect but it turned out to be one of the most memorable films I've seen in recent memory.

So the positives for this are quite numerous, its a very realistically shot and gritty story which is scare not least of which because it could really happen. The feeling throughout the movie is pretty visceral and really puts you in the position of understanding the fear this situation would evoke.

The problem is with the character writing. The characters are pretty inconsistent, its like the script writer kept forgetting which characters were supposed to be reacting to this stress by getting panicked etc and kept jumping between one character reacting by thinking things through to suddenly being the one being negative about all the options and another character being the thoughtful one. At the start of the movie one of the women is constantly panicking (understandable) and the other is a forceful character and then half way through its like they switch personalities. This is pretty jarring every time it happens which spoils an otherwise very good movie. Still a pretty decent film though.

Gore hounds beware...this is not your movie. This little nail bitter has very little blood and guts. Its basically a version of Open Water that is effective and worthwhile. But what sets it apart is that we actually like the three leads (unlike Open Water) who find themselves up a tree when a crocodile flips their fishing boat and munches up their guide. We don't want any harm to come to any of them. SO when they start getting into dangerous situations...we actually care.

Now I like killer animal flicks but I haven't been too impressed with Lake Placid up to Primeval (although I'm still waiting to see Rogue and hoping it is somewhere as good as this one!) but this little bugger did the job and did the job well. It's scares are creative and it only lapses into the run of the mill frantic crying sobbing and arguing for brief stints of realism so I never got annoyed.

I remember reading the true story that inspired this where three guys went fishing and two ended up in a tree while their buddy was killed by the crocodile . But the thing that always impacted me that gets left out from the film was that the crocodile didn't eat up the buddy. No. For hours and hours he swam around the tree and shook the dead body still in his mouth at the friends in the tree. Seeming to stay, if you come down here this is what will happen to you.

This low budget crocodile movie really delivers the goods. The fact that it was inspired by true events would mean little if you wound up with a fake looking crocodile, bad C.G.I., or an obvious studio setting. Fortunately none of the above are involved with this terrific, very realistic film. The crocodile is real, there is no C.G.I., and the on location filming takes place in an actual Australian swamp. The actors were obviously inspired to create as much realism as possible in their performances, and they succeed. You can place yourself in their predicament, which is testament to how realistically "Black Water" translates as entertainment. Highly recommended. - MERK