Black Water (2007 film)

Black Water is a 2007 Australian horror film written and directed by Andrew Traucki and David Nerlich. The film, an international co-production of Australia and the United Kingdom, is set in the mangrove swamps of northern Australia, and stars Diana Glenn, Maeve Dermody and Andy Rodoreda. Inspired by the true story of a crocodile attack in Australia's Northern Territory in December 2003,[2] a pregnant woman, along with her boyfriend and her sister, take a boat tour of a mangrove swamp, where they are terrorised by a ferocious saltwater crocodile.

Black Water
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDavid Nerlich
Andrew Traucki
Produced byDavid Nerlich
Michael Robertson
Andrew Traucki
Written byDavid Nerlich
Andrew Traucki
StarringDiana Glenn
Maeve Dermody
Andy Rodoreda
Music byRafael May
CinematographyJohn Biggins
Edited byRodrigo Balart
Distributed byAV Pictures
Release date
  • 3 August 2007 (2007-08-03) (Nuremberg Fantasy Filmfest)
  • 22 February 2008 (2008-02-22) (United Kingdom)
  • 24 April 2008 (2008-04-24) (Australia)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryAustralia
United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1,271,556[1]

Plot

While on vacation Grace, her husband Adam and Grace's younger sister Lee decide to visit at a crocodile show. The next day they head to "Back Water Barry's" fishing tour to take a boat ride back into the mangrove swamp to try some fishing.

Once they arrive at the docks, their tour guide, Jim, arms himself with a revolver and they set off. After failing to catch any fish on the usual route, Jim suggests going deeper into the swamps. While in a small clearing, Lee spots something through her camera and alerts Grace, but later finds nothing.

Suddenly, the boat capsizes; dumping the occupants into the water. Adam realizes a crocodile attacked them and helps Grace into a nearby tree. He searches the water for Lee, who got tangled up in ropes underneath the boat. Grace sees the beast nearby and convinces Adam to come back. Lee frees herself, but the beast swims after her. She manages to climb atop the boat, but the beast thrashes the boat in an attempt to throw her off. Adam and Grace distract it, and it swims away. Realizing they can use the boat's ropes to pull Lee to safety, they attempt to execute this plan, only for the boat to get stuck. A hesitant Lee's forced to swim across and makes it despite panicking halfway across. The girls suggest waiting for help, but Adam claims no one saw them leave, so Grace tries climbing the trees back to the mainland. However, she's forced to swim back. An impatient Adam goes for the boat. He successfully overturns it, but the beast kills him. The girls make numerous attempts to continue his plan, only to be thwarted at every turn.

The next day, they decide the boat's a lost cause and attempt to use the trees to get out of the clearing again. The beast attacks them, forcing them back to their original tree, though Grace suffers a nasty bite to her thigh in the process. Because of heavy bleeding, her condition worsens over time. Lee tries once again to reach the boat, but gets pulled underwater and knocked unconscious. She later finds herself on a very small island alongside Jim's body. She patches herself up, takes his revolver, and attempts to kill the beast; only the gun fails to work due to being jammed with mud.

She tries to lure the beast in using Jim's detached arm as bait and holding the pistol ready to fire at it when it comes for the snack but it refused to show itself. She flees, with the beast close behind. It launches a sneak attack when she stops, but Lee manages to get the gun working and kill it. The threat averted, she makes her way back to Grace, who has died from her injuries. Lee mourns her sister as she places her on the boat and paddles out of the mangrove.

Cast

Production

The location representing the vast mangroves system in northern Australia was actually in the directors' home town of Sydney, 25 minutes from the Central business district In a small suburb called Oatley. They also spent a week in Darwin shooting footage of real saltwater crocodiles that were transplanted into the location along with the actors, with the directing team doing their own CG special effects to achieve this.[3] For whatever reason, the producers bought a Jimmy Five vinyl doll to use in the film. [4]

Release

Other festivals:

Reception

Black Water received positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 79% based on 19 reviews, with an average rating of 5.93/10.[10] Critics praised the lack of CGI commonly used in this type of film, as well as the tense plotting and suspense built from it. Neil Smith of Total Film Magazine also praised the ending stating it was "a conclusion that refreshingly refutes the genre rulebook."

Awards
Award Category Subject Result
AACTA Awards
(2008 AFI Awards)		 Best Supporting Actress Maeve Dermody Nominated
Best Editing Rodrigo Balart Nominated
Australian Guild of Screen Composers Music Award for Best Soundtrack Rafael May Won
FCCA Awards Best Supporting Actress Maeve Dermody Nominated
Best Editing Rodrigo Balart Nominated
Inside Film Awards Best Director David Nerlich Nominated
Andrew Traucki Nominated
Best Actress Maeve Dermody Nominated
Best Editing Rodrigo Balart Nominated
Melbourne Underground Film Festival Best Director David Nerlich Won
Andrew Traucki Won
Best Cinematography John Biggins Won

Box office

Black Water performed well financially and grossed $1,271,556 worldwide.[11]

Sequel

A sequel titled, Black Water: Abyss was released on July 4th, 2020 in the UK, and on July 30th, 2020 in Australia.[12]

gollark: The tree is very big.
gollark: Thus, MANY time.
gollark: clang/LLVM is in C++, so arguably it depends on itself (a past version, anyway).
gollark: It does more than "read and write files", that cryoapiodrone.
gollark: As planned.

See also

References
  1. https://boxofficemojo.com/movies/intl/?page=&country=PH&id=_fBLACKWATER01
  2. McMahon, Barbara (19 January 2008). "The night of the hunter". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 April 2010.
  3. George, Sandy (21 February 2007). "Same reptile, different scale". The Australian. Archived from the original on 22 February 2007. Retrieved 8 August 2007.
  4. "Cebolinha, da Mônica, aparece em filme australiano de crocodilo assassino; entenda a história". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  5. FrightFest (23 August 2007). "FrightFest". frightfest.co.uk. Archived from the original on 1 July 2007. Retrieved 7 August 2007.
  6. Kelly, Brendan (17 April 2007). "Variety". movies.go.com/variety. Retrieved 8 August 2007.
  7. Fantasy Filmfest (29 August 2007). "Fantasy Filmfest". www.fantasyfilmfest.com. Archived from the original on 14 July 2007. Retrieved 7 August 2007.
  8. Australian Film Commission (29 August 2007). "UK theatrical release for Black Water". afc.gov.au. Archived from the original on 9 August 2007. Retrieved 7 August 2007.
  9. Inside Film (29 August 2007). "AV closes more deals on crocodile thriller Black Water". if.com.au. Archived from the original on 26 September 2007. Retrieved 7 August 2007.
  10. "Black Water (2008)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  11. "Black Water (2008)". www.boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  12. "Black Water (2008)". www.imdb.com. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.