This low budget little Australian effort is the latest in the small but growing sub-genre of ‘Nature-Slashers’. Open Water is the clear father of this particular off-shoot and Black Water certainly draws from it very heavily. Rather than a couple being menaced by sharks in the ocean however, here we have three people being hassled by a crocodile in a swamp. Another similarity between these two films is that like Open Water before it the directors of this film have opted to eschew CGI or animatronic puppets in favour of the real deal. The whole film was shot using real saltwater crocodiles in a real swamp, an act of admirably ballsy dedication from cast and crew and one which pays off by investing the film with a welcome sense of reality which reinforces and underpins the seriousness of the situation.

The story is a familiar one having been the subject of several recent real-life news reports – a group of people go fishing in the mangrove swamps only to be attacked by a crocodile. The surviving members of the group then seek refuge from the beast up a tree but the hungry croc is reluctant to let them leave. With nobody around to help and nobody knowing where they are, it is up to the unfortunate young trio themselves to find a way out of their predicament.

Directors, David Nerlich and Andrew Traucki are keen to get to the crocodile fun and waste no time in getting to the action. The first crocodile attack in fact is one of the highlights of the film, it is fast, unexpected and brutal but most importantly it soundly establishes our scaly villain and the terrain it stalks. Though only very briefly seen the crocodile instantly becomes an all-powerful and absolutely malevolent force of nature at its most destructive. The humans stand no chance against it whatsoever and literally their one and only chance of survival is to perch in the tree. Nerlich and Traucki wisely follow up this cataclysmic introduction to their demon-reptile with a long period of its complete absence in which the audience along with the main characters are left to guess at where the crocodile is and when it will strike again.

The obvious problem with a premise as slight as this is that the film treads a very dangerous line between tense and tedious. There is a limit to what three people can get up to whilst stuck up a tree after all. Fortunately, sound performances from all three principles but particularly Maeve Dermody ensure that the film generally stays on the right side of this line.

It does in places get bogged down with repetition and melodrama but then these are counterbalanced by some awesomely tense sequences. There is a hellish nightmare sequence lit only by flashes of lightning illuminating the crocodile thrashing around below as it feasts upon one of the tree-dwellers former number. There is also a wonderful moment when our heroes come unexpectedly face to face with the croc (do crocodiles have faces?) on its own ground.

Mention should also be made of the restrained special effects which do exactly what they should – convince us of the reality of the situation and the brutal danger inherent in it. There is never a moment when you disbelieve the fact that these characters are in a real swamp with a real crocodile and the film benefits greatly from this.

Despite a rather unoriginal premise which isn’t quite able to sustain its running time Black Water is an effective contribution to its rapidly expanding sub-genre. Bleak and unrelenting, at its best it hammers home just how little chance we stand against the full savagery of nature as well as just how resilient the human spirit can be.

Review By Matt Compton