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Movie Review: Black Water: Abyss

08 Saturday Aug 2020

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Self-confessed old-style thriller fan, Andrew Traucki has carved out a career telling stories of survival on screen since his debut feature, Black Water released in 2007.
He’s no stranger to the harsh environments that humanity must endure with his follow up features, The Reef, and Jungle, so it comes as no surprise that when offered the chance to revisit the subject that launched his directing pilgrimage.

Billed as a sequel to his croc attack movie, upon review Black Water: Abyss serves more of an anthological piece as none of its original stars nor its cranky chompster return to continue the storyline.
Instead we are introduced to a quintet of extreme sport enthusiasts (Jessica McNamee – The Meg, Luke Mitchell, Amali Golden, Benjamin Hoetjes, and Anthony J.Sharpe), who go in search of their latest thrill, some wilfully, others begrudgingly as they find an unexplored cave system, which just so happens to have a snappy predator lurking in the watery caves. 

Traucki shows his experience behind the camera, pairing back the action to allow the suspense to rise to the surface and draw out the group’s plight which takes them through the bold, ignorant, panic-stricken, heartache.
On show are two couples on the verge of destruction as the film serves as a metaphor for the physical weathering of their relationships.
If they are to survive this ordeal, what will become of them at the end of it all.
Is there life worth salvaging or are they better off as croc fodder?

The prognosis:

The cast showcase their acting chops grounding their situation in reality, moulded by a talented director. 

Try not to judge the film from its opening 15 minutes or so with admittedly a bit of a shaky script.
It takes a while for the mechanisms to take a hold, but once it has its grip it takes you on a death roll towards its conclusion that leaves you asking just exactly how they will escape, if at all.

It may not be ground-breaking and doesn’t quite match its predecessor in raw appeal, but it’s an enjoyable flick that again uses real crocs in real situations to amp up the thrills.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie review: The Reef: Stalked

27 Wednesday Jul 2022

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Australian Director Andrew Traucki certainly has a taste for aquaphobia with his breakout feature hits Black Water, and The Reef. Back in 2020, he decided to revisit his croc shock feature with the sequel, Black Water: Abyss. Now is the turn of the shark, with a delve back into the reef with a twist in the tale for The Reef: Stalked.

His hook is in telling the story of Nic (Teressa Liane), who is still in the breaches of surviving the trauma of her sister’s murder. Nic tries to reconnect with the world by submerging herself into an old pastime on a kayaking adventure with her younger sister, Annie (Saskia Archer), and her two friends, Jodie (Ann Truong) and Lisa (Kate Lister). Before long the predator of the ocean makes its presence known and begins to hunt them down without backing down once it latches onto their scent.

The topic of trauma is a gripping one and presents and interesting premise for Traucki to grapple with and I applaud him in dabbling in this terrain to weave together an incredible story about survival against the odds and placing it in a shark horror feature.

The premise, and the topic may have been a stretch too far to blend them together with a sense of ease, as too often the focus shifts on the unrest between the two siblings rather than the fear itself. It’s a tough balancing act, because you want to establish a connection with your audience by building on the characters’ exchange with one another. Unfortunately I felt that the dialogue and performances were waning; a crying shame as Traucki has proven up to the task before, especially in his feature debut, Black Water, thrusting his female protagonists played by Diana Glenn and Maeve Dermody through the ringer, with grit and determination. 

The lack of grit is all too evident here, and the leads spar off each other from one scenario to the next without too much substance to wade through.

So what of the shark? 

When it appears there are flashes of images to spark fear in the audience but it never comes across as sinister enough and murky as a result. The one moment where your heart spins for a moment, is when some children are caught in the mix with their life in the hands of fate. In this instance, you are willing for them to survive and here Traucki shows his hand at playing with the audience’s heartstrings. A sign that he still knows how to play that card and its not completely lost at sea.

The Prognosis:

Shark movies are always a tough gig to sell, and Andrew Traucki does his best to repeat his formula from his 2010 feature, The Reef with a notable and worthy attempt at looking at the impact of trauma.

I really wanted to like this film and champion homegrown Australian cinema but despite some notable moments, the result is a stretch too far with performances and dialogue not weighing up to the potential that a strong subject like trauma deserves. 

  • Saul Muerte

The Reef: Stalked is released in Australian cinemas from Thursday 28th July.

The Creature: “Universal’s last iconic monster”

26 Sunday Jun 2022

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Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954)…

…would symbolise the bridge between Universal’s golden horror era and their move into the sci-fi genre. It also marks the last of the iconic monsters to be born out of the giant film production house.
Directed by Jack Arnold (who also helmed It Came From Outer Space (1953)), The Creature would follow a group of scientists who uncover an amphibious humanoid known as the Gill-man in the heart of the Amazon. 

Released in 3D at the point of its decline in the early 50s, and also in the traditional two-dimensional format, managed to capture over $1m in Box Office takings but was overshadowed by its predecessors. 

Among the scientists are Dr. David Reed (Richard Carlson) and Kay Lawrence (Julia Adams), the latter forming the object of affection for Gill-man. The film was reported to been inspired by the tale Beauty and the Beast, which is evident at least in the creatures pursuit for love among humankind, fascinated by the beautiful Kate, leading to a similar conclusion to King Kong, where the monster kidnaps the female lead and ends up riddled with bullets. In this instance, though, the monster doesn’t fall a great height , but instead sinks to the depths of a supposed watery grave. 

The story is a simple one enough, and is entertaining despite treading in familiar territory, carving out the usual horror movie tropes. It’s appeal lies mainly through the underwater sequences and the cinematography captured to instil fear and create atmosphere. The Gill-man would be portrayed by Ricou Browning for these water scenes, who had the gruelling task of holding his breath under for minutes at a time to deliver the strenuous fight scenes. On land, this task of donning the creatures mask fell to Ben Chapman, who had to wear the costume for 14 hour stretches in the heat and with minimal visibility at best.
Considered a success by Universal, a further two instalments would come in the franchise with…

Revenge of the Creature (1955)

Jack Arnold would be charged with directing the creature once again, only this time the Universal monster is far removed from its native Amazon landscape and confined in captivity where it is studied by Professor Clete Ferguson (John Agar) and his student Helen Dobson (Lori Nelson).
The film follows a familiar trajectory though of unrequited love as the creature pursues and captures Helen, only to be shot by police in his escape for freedom. Ricou Browning would once again return for the underwater segments, and Tom Hennesy filling in for the above ground sequences. Revenge though would be something of a forgotten entry other than to be mocked in Mystery Science Theater 3000, and for boasting Clint Eastwood as an uncredited role as a lab technician. This didn’t stop the creature from returning to screens however three years down the track with…

The Creature Walks Among Us (1958)

The creatures final feature length appearance for Universal would see a different director with John Sherwood but would still see Ricou Browning in full Creature make up (Don Megowan would take on the on-land duties), although now the look had altered slightly. This follows its rescue and surgery after being burned in a fire, the creature becomes physically more human looking and loses its gills, developing lungs to breathe.

The villainy and fear factor falls more in human terrain this time with the abusive and mentally unstable Dr. Barton (Jeff Morrow). The creature sided with a tale of what it means to be human or beast? When we go through such psychological stages, can we truly rid our genetic make up, or in the creatures case, would the call of the ocean prove to be too great?

Our last shot of the iconic creature would see it on the beachfront, walking into the great sea.

The Creature’s cultural impact would still hang in the minds and inspirations of film creatives for years to come however, with several attempts at a remake and appearances in films such as The Monster Squad, and the more recent Creepshow series on Shudder. It’s most affection nod tough comes in Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape of Water, eager to give the creature one last shot at love.

  • Saul Muerte



Movie review: The Reckoning (2021)

05 Saturday Jun 2021

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When Director, Neil Marshall hit the horror scene with his debut feature, Dog Soldiers, he hit hard with a werewolf film that not only had its own identity but packed with a little humour.
He then went on to prove that he wasn’t just a one-hit wonder with his sophomore outing The Descent, strengthened his position as a genre film director and won some dedicated supporters of his craft.

It would appear though, that Marshall’s magic was waning as he struggled with his third attempt to appeal to his audience with Doomsday, despite high hopes abound. And even his follow up feature, Centurion, starring Michael Fassbender stuck to average mediocrity.

By the mid 2010’s though, he managed to strike gold twice for popular tv series Game of Thrones with two of its best episodes, Blackwater and The Watchers On The Wall, which led some to believe that he still could captivate and entertain on a large scale. Those walls of expectations fell down however with the re-imagined Hellboy missing the beats once again.

Despite all this, Marshall’s name still fills me with optimism and so when it came to light that his latest feature, The Reckoning was to stream on Shudder, I was front and centre for its debut.

Unfortunately, it falls short of my expectations and struggles with a saturated introduction to its central character, Grace (Charlotte Kirk, who also co writes the screenplay alongside Marshall and Edward Evers-Swindell) whose husband falls foul to the plague and rather than become a burden to his family and possibly infect them, takes his own life. This leaves Grace to try and make her own way and find the means to support her baby. Easier said than done with a horrible landlord Pendleton (Steven Waddington) abusing his power and corruption to force Grace to drastic means. 

But such is the way of the world, as soon as a woman should stand up for herself, she’s labelled a witch, taken away to be trialed for these convictions.

All this seems to take an age to get to this point and has a wishy-washy way of taking us there, coming across as made for a TV feature.

It’s such a shame as it feels so strained and without substance. In fact, it’s not until the ever-dependable Sean Pertwee makes his entrance as the witchfinder Moorcroft that the film starts to lift out of the quagmire of stales. He chomps and chews his way through each scene with glorious humour and glee, that it was a joy to watch him. By this stage I was only too relieved as I’m not so sure I could have endured anymore if his presence wasn’t made.

By the end of the movie though, it trudges to a conclusion with a thinly veiled attempt to tie this back to history, but by this point, I was beyond caring.

The Diagnosis:

I so wanted Marshall to come good with this film, as he definitely has the directing chops to pull it off.

The bang is quickly turned to a whimsical whimper though and fails to flicker on the pulsometer of fun.

It’s only appeal is Sean Pertwee, whose larger than life witchfinder is gloriously fun.

The rest of the movie however, just doesn’t resonate. 

Shame. 

  • Saul Muerte

Movie review: The Lodgers

26 Thursday Apr 2018

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The promise of a good old fashioned gothic horror story stirred some keen interest in this veteran horror fan, but there still remained some trepidation after watching Del Toro’s Crimson Peak a few years ago, which was all style and no substance.

The fact that The Lodgers has yet to find a cinematic release here on Australian shores also had a whiff of failure about it.
Nevertheless, when I saw that it would get a screening at this year’s Irish Film Festival, I dusted down my long black coat and ventured out to Paddington to see if there was life in this old fashioned genre or not.

It certainly had promise, and all the hallmarks one would expect with a dark and desolate abode, remote and cut off from the world, where all that lies within are Rachel and her twin brother, Edward, who harbour their own secrets.

As the house falls into disrepair and their inheritance dwindles, the siblings are forced to face up to their prophecy, but will they reside to their fate or resist the inevitable?

The cast all hold their own with a plethora of familiar faces, ranging from David Bradley and Eugene Simon (both from Game of Thrones) and Moe Dunford (Vikings), but it is the troubled twins who steal the show as Bill Milner’s brilliantly disturbed Edward, who delicately hinges on the brink of sanity and despair, whilst Charlotte Vega proves to be a force to be reckoned with on screen playing out Rachel’s sexual awakening and curiosity as she struggles with her past and a potential future. Her captivating performance on screen could well prove Vega to be a rising star.

The film does offers some familiarity with Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw which should delight some fans of the genre. I also liked the use of water leaking into the house and into the twins lives as they try to shut out their past, only for the water to keep seeping through the cracks and getting closer every day showing that director Brian O’Malley has potential behind the lens.

The Diagnosis:

There are elements that promise to tighten the sphincter but too often the film falls prey to old horror tropes and when it looks like it might deliver, falls short in the process.

It’s a shame because with a bit more thought and effort, The Lodgers could have been elevated alongside The Woman In Black or The Others but instead languishes at the bottom of the flooded basement.

It’s watchable but don’t hold your breathe for any out and our scares.

– Saul Muerte