Seen at Sitges Film Festival. Before entering the theatre I thought this was going to be an obviously self-conscious splatter b-movie, as we see so many these days. The mother lode was started by "Scream" and has not stopped since then. All in all, however, Rogue comes out as a honestly, straightforwardly enjoyable pop-corn movie with some good moment to remember.
The film superstar is -not surprisingly- the crocodile. The croc is realistic, fun and quite scary. Thumbs up for the special FX guys who did a really good job (otherwise I suspect the movie would be unwatchable). The best scene with the croc is when, after showing itself in full glory, the beast goes under water in the little pool in the cave, and you know it is going to come out in 1 sec or so and you scream for the good guy to do something (which he eventually does). These scenes are a major innovation of the classic "Jaws" stuff we see during the rest of the movie. The most typical "Jaws" shot (swimmer seen from below, hypothetical beast's POV) is repeated several times. Once we even see the back scales of the croc looming over the water like a shark's fin. More Spielbergean inspiration from "Jurassic Park": crocs are explicitly referred to as modern dinosaurs; like JP this is a tale of tourists chased by a reptile during an excursion; croc thuds boat like T-Rex thuds jeep, etc.
Other influences I smelled: "Deliverance" (men in boat cross the wild and get their holiday messed up), Terrence Malick (the cricket close-up), "Alien" (croc's den) and John Carpenter (people on small island besieged by invisible forces).
Acting is surprisingly solid, above all from the supporting characters. Overall, telling who dies next is not 100% predictable, which I consider good value for a b-movie like this; for example, the bad guy turns out to be a hero but gets butchered anyway and the nice doggy dog is not luckier than that. Script is not so bold as to have hero and heroine slaughtered as well, although you may think they are doomed at one point. Score works well underlying scary moments and luxuriant landscapes.
The only thing I am a little upset about is why the hell the guys do not turn off their torches when swimming across the swamp. I am not into crocodiles that much, but I am pretty sure they are not blind
The film superstar is -not surprisingly- the crocodile. The croc is realistic, fun and quite scary. Thumbs up for the special FX guys who did a really good job (otherwise I suspect the movie would be unwatchable). The best scene with the croc is when, after showing itself in full glory, the beast goes under water in the little pool in the cave, and you know it is going to come out in 1 sec or so and you scream for the good guy to do something (which he eventually does). These scenes are a major innovation of the classic "Jaws" stuff we see during the rest of the movie. The most typical "Jaws" shot (swimmer seen from below, hypothetical beast's POV) is repeated several times. Once we even see the back scales of the croc looming over the water like a shark's fin. More Spielbergean inspiration from "Jurassic Park": crocs are explicitly referred to as modern dinosaurs; like JP this is a tale of tourists chased by a reptile during an excursion; croc thuds boat like T-Rex thuds jeep, etc.
Other influences I smelled: "Deliverance" (men in boat cross the wild and get their holiday messed up), Terrence Malick (the cricket close-up), "Alien" (croc's den) and John Carpenter (people on small island besieged by invisible forces).
Acting is surprisingly solid, above all from the supporting characters. Overall, telling who dies next is not 100% predictable, which I consider good value for a b-movie like this; for example, the bad guy turns out to be a hero but gets butchered anyway and the nice doggy dog is not luckier than that. Script is not so bold as to have hero and heroine slaughtered as well, although you may think they are doomed at one point. Score works well underlying scary moments and luxuriant landscapes.
The only thing I am a little upset about is why the hell the guys do not turn off their torches when swimming across the swamp. I am not into crocodiles that much, but I am pretty sure they are not blind