You can tell from the get go that Black Water is going to be a well-conceived but badly executed thriller. It has aspirations towards The Blair Witch Project and Jaws, but the kind of execution that’s more The Bare Wench Project meets Piranha.
Grace (Diana Glenn), her boyfriend Adam (Andy Rodoreda) and her little sister Lee (Maeve Dermondy) decide to take a river tour while on holiday. After drifting into a mangrove swamp their boat is capsized and they soon realise they’ve been attacked by a crocodile.
As the onslaught of XXXX drinking, casual swearing and Steve Irwin look-a-likey tour guide suggest, Black Water is set in Northern Australia where, according to the opening shot, croc attacks are a regular occurrence. Even so, that hardly warrants the ‘based on a true story’ tag pinned to the film.
With a plot focused almost entirely on the survival of only three characters, it’s not a big ask for Black Water to sustain the tension for a tight 90 minutes. But although the footage of real crocs is an effective choice by co-directors David Nerlich and Andrew Traucki, and the first attack jolts the film to life, it doesn’t leave you on tenterhooks for very long.
The tension quickly dissolves as hunter and hunted play a game of peek-a-boo that turns into a comical farce about as scary as a bush tucker trial. Don’t bother watching a film that’s essentially Jaws with a crocodile; just watch Jaws instead.
