BLACK WATER

During their vacation, newly pregnant Grace, her boyfriend Adam and his litle sister Lee decide to take a low-rent sight-seeing trip of Northern Australia’s mangrove swamps. Their tour is interrupted when something overturns their boat and the guide disappears. After taking refuge in some nearby trees, they discover that the cause of the accident is none other than an enormous, ferocious crocodile. Surrounded by water and with nothing to eat, they face the painful decision of how to cross the river in the overturned boat, knowing that the crocodile lurks somewhere beneath the murky waters, waiting to turn them into lunch. Anyone who has seen Wolf Creek, knows the remote outlying areas of Australia can be a pretty frightening place. This is proven again in Black Water, a solid piece of survival horror, reminiscent of Open Water, that has no need for any special effects to raise tension to unsuspected limits. The crocodile, the villain of the piece, is definitely one of the impressive things in Black Water. It looks highly realistic, right down to the way it moves over and above water. Based on a true story, directors Andrew Traucki and David Nerlich’s nerve-wrecking adventure revolves around an all-too-real life-threatening dilemma. The sudden reptilian attacks and the desperate attempts of the trio to get back to their submerged boat raise potent apprehension and imaginatively stretch the suspense to nail-biting levels. The stylish visuals, in particular, a midnight nightmare, pay terrific shock dividends too.