Review of Rogue (2007) by Terror A — 10 May 2010

Writer/director Greg McLean's follow-up to his excellent Aussie horror debut "Wolf Creek" is an old fashioned, suspenseful and entertaining monster movie about a group of tourists, including tour guide Kate (Radha Mitchell) and American travel writer Pete (Michael Vartan), who get an attack by a huge 7 meter man-eating crocodile in the Australian outback.

While it isn't as good as his debut but McLean makes a highly effective horror film that is well acted by its cast (although some of the Aussie actors are a bit on-or-off with their overseas accents), McLean's direction is stylishly terrific, the cinematography is beautifully picturesque and the score is great.

However the film's plot is routine and predicable and the supporting characters are underdeveloped (some of them are pretty much there for croc food) but they didn't bother me too much because this film doesn't try reinvent the wheel but it takes more of a realistic, serious and entertaining approach, trust me when I say that it is definitely 100 times better than most shitty killer croc films (especially that horrible film "Primeval").

Also I have to mention that the star of the film is the croc himself, unlike most other killer crocs in the genre McLean doesn't play it as a monster but rather as an animal. Luckily McLean takes the "Jaws" route, so that you never really see it until the very end.

When you finally see it is a fantastic creation of both CGI and animatronics, I swear that there were times where I actually forgot that it was a CGI character. It is so realistic in its look, colouring and movements that you would think that it was the real thing.

Overall it isn't the most original horror film ever made but it still a well crafted and intense film that I think everyone will enjoy and it also proves that McLean is as a future master of horror.