BLACKWATER

Blackwater is the second Australian crocodile film we have watched recently. We saw the other croc movie - Rogue, a few weeks ago, and we rated it pretty poorly. Apparantly Rogue cost over $30 million to make but Blackwater was made on a shoe string budget of only $1.2 million. Blackwater is a fairly decent film - interesting enough to watch the whole thing through, but the movie ended and we were left feeling a bit like we kind of wished we never watched it. I think there's something about predator-waiting-to-kill-you type movies that always give me that feeling. The same thing happened when I watched the Vampire movie 30 Days of Night. I just couldn't help feeling a bit depressed when the film ended. But nonetheless, I chose Blackwater from the selection available in the RedRoom DVD machine because it said it was based on a true story - and whenever I see those words I know I have to see it. And I guess that is partly why I was left feeling depressed when the film ended - how could there be anything more terrifying and depressing than being stalked by a crocodile while you are stuck up a tree in the mangroves in the middle of nowhere just waiting to die? It's one thing if you can say to yourself "its just a movie, that never really happened" but when you know it actually did happen?! Terrifying! I researched a little and found out it was actually based on several true stories from the Northern Territory, one of which is the story of the death of Brett Mann in the Finniss River in 2003. According to the Northern Territory News "...He was killed by a saltie as he cleaned his quad bike in the flood swollen river. His friends, Shaun Blowers and Ashley Mcgough, spent the night in a tree as the crocodile lurked below. "The croc brought the body back and waited around," Director, Andrew Traucki said. Real crocs were used in the film and apparantly there were some close calls during filming. See this movie if you want to be scared off visiting the top end for ever! I rate Blackwater 6/10.

xx c.