Between last summer’s Crawl, Shudder’s recent release of The Pool, this summer’s Black Water: Abyss and the lethal lion feature, Rogue, man versus apex predator horror movies are on the rise. The latter of which shares a title with one of the aughts’ most overlooked creature features, 2007’s Rogue. Writer/Director Greg McLean broke out in 2005 with brutal horror-thriller Wolf Creek, but his immediate follow up proved just as vicious. The film’s very limited theatrical release and lack of Blu-ray release in the U.S. (it only went to DVD) meant that this underseen killer croc movie slipped under the radar. Of this particular subgenre of horror, Rogue ranks incredibly high and is well worth seeking out.
Rogue stars Michael Vartan as travel journalist Pete McKell, on assignment in Northern Territory. He joins a group of tourists on a river cruise, led by wildlife researcher Kate Ryan (Radha Mitchell). The tour goes swimmingly, with Kate spouting terrifying facts about the saltwater crocodiles that inhabit the river until it’s interrupted by rowdy locals Neil (Sam Worthington) and Collin (Damien Richardson). As the tour winds down and Kate prepares to take the group back to base, a flare in the distance leads them to a shipwrecked boat in a sacred, remote stretch of the river. Something fast and large crashes into their tour boat, leaving them shipwrecked on a tiny island mid-river that will go underwater once the tide rises.
That leaves them all in a race against time, with a 25-foot man-eating crocodile closing in for dinner.
Designed to be a classic monster movie in the vein of Jaws, McLean penned Rogue long before Wolf Creek. The project very nearly went into production but went south. It wasn’t until the success of Wolf Creek that McLean was finally able to tackle the film he envisioned, and the years it took to getting Rogue off the ground allowed him to revise it into something leaner, and meaner. It’s based on the true story of Sweetheart, a 17-foot male saltwater crocodile that attacked multiple boats between 1975-1979 until it was caught by the Territory Parks and Wildlife Commission. Unlike the killer croc in the movie, though, Sweetheart had no known cases of ever attacking a human.
The key ingredient here, as tends to be the case with creature features like this, is simplicity. McLean gives us just enough to establish the characters and dynamics but keeps the central focus on the dire situation and the ever-looming threat of a monster-sized predator. Like Jaws, Rogue doesn’t show off its beast too often, at least not until the final act. Many of its early kills are quick and off-screen- true to form; this croc snatches its victims off the shore in the blink of an eye. There’s safety on the other side of the river, but that means entering the water to get there. The characters can’t delay too much, or they’ll all be underwater anyway. The animal’s speed and murky river waters mean near-constant suspense as the group panics and bickers amongst each other.
Like in Wolf Creek, McLean builds up to an explosive, brutal final act that pits the film’s leads against the gigantic killer in its claustrophobic lair. While the director showed restraint leading up to the climax, he lets loose with the violence in the final encounter. The downside is that the croc is very clearly CGI, but the good news is that it’s minimal, and the action compensates anyway. For many, the film’s biggest flaw will be in its handling of Kate’s pup Kevin- spoiler warning: it suffers the grim fate we all expected Sugar to suffer in last year’s Crawl.
A tautly paced thriller that favors tension over overt violence, Rogue opts for restrained simplicity, and it’s effective. The setting is gorgeous and contributes a lot to the overall production value. The cast brings it, adding authenticity to characters we never get to know much beyond their harrowing night trying to survive. Look for Mick Taylor himself, John Jarratt, in a nearly unrecognizable role as one of the tourists. Also, look for Mia Wasikowska (Crimson Peak, Stoker) in one of her earlier parts before breaking out with Alice in Wonderland. Speaking of Disney, “Never Smile At A Crocodile” by The Paulette Sisters as the end credits song is a stroke of inspired genius.
If you’re in the mood for more aquatic horror, or perhaps you’d like to pair something with 2020’s Rogue in a thematic double feature, the underseen Rogue is an excellent addition to the subgenre.
