Black Water: Abyss

5 go into a cave. They get trapped inside because of a storm ( that they knew about ). A big croc is lurking and you can guess the rest yourself. Could've been a lot better but also worse. Was just glad to be back in the cinema

Well, did we really need another movie about a group of spelunking people getting trapped underground with no way out, a rising water mass and a man-eating creature?

The answer is no, not really. And the 2020 movie "Black Water: Abyss" from writers John Ridley and Sarah Smith didn't really impress much. Especially since it offered virtually nothing new to the genre, and there are other movies in the genre that proved to have more bite to it - pardon the pun.

And director Andrew Traucki didn't really manage to muster up a story that was all that entertaining. Sure, "Black Water: Abyss" was watchable, but it was awfully predictable and generic. And that made the movie suffer.

The acting in the movie was adequate, but the characters were slightly less adequate. But once you've seen one of these movies, you've essentially seen them all. And the characters in "Black Water: Abyss" were generic, sure.

And for a movie with a man-eating crocodile, then "Black Water: Abyss" just didn't pack enough of a forceful bite. The scenes with the crocodile were just too far between, and there wasn't enough scenes with the man-eater. So it was slightly boring.

I will say, though, that the crocodile was nicely animated and seemed very realistic. So that was definitely a plus. Just a shame it wasn't all that much in the movie.

The ending of the movie was just bland and super predictable. It was actually a ridiculous ending to the movie; one that you saw coming a mile away.

I am rating "Black Water: Abyss" a less than mediocre four out of ten stars. It offers nothing that we haven't already seen in other movies in the same genre.

'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.

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.

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.