Review of Rogue (2007) by Mike M — 03 Dec 2009

Rogue is a solid, thrilling creature feature. While the poster makes it look like your average Lake Placid/Jaws/SciFi channel ripoff, it is much more.

The film details an Australian tourist boat attacked by an enormous crocodile while in the beautful but rugged and desolate Norther Territory. Most of the characters were pretty interesting and a couple of big stars (Sam Worthington, Radha Mitchell) are included. The crocodile itself was pretty realistic looking, especially considering the smaller budget of this film.

The entire film after the first attack was tense. It really juxtaposed the easy going and peacefulness of the tour. Time played a crucial role in the film and the director executed its importance perfectly. Like Jaws, the director never let you see the creature until the right time. You never knew when it was coming: the builing up could make it jump out at anytime or not for a while.

Besides being tense and scary, the film was beautfifully shot. There were spectacular shots of the Northern Territory. The exterior shots and camera work gave the feel of a different world where stranded travelers are left alone in the land of the horrifying predators that eerie Aboriginal drawings gave warning of.

Is this film better than Jaws? No. But if it came out in 1973, I have a feeling that it would be the animal predator movie everybody would be talking about 30 years later. Instead, it will be placed in the groups of lesser films such as Lake Placid/Anaconda/anything else having to do with natural predators like sharks and reptiles. It was set to be released the same time as Primeval, and of course the worse of the two similar films got the major release (and deservedly poor reviews). Jaws set the benchmark for this type of film and makes it impossible for anything else to achieve better.

This film was not perfect. The ending was decent but could have been better, and I would have liked to see a few different things happen to the supporting characters. Overall, I think it a genuinely scary and tense natural horror film and the best creature feature since Jaws. For anybody wanting a horror/thriller film without imaginary monsters, I would definitely recommend this great Australian film.