Back in 2007, directors Andrew Traucki and David Nerlich released Black Water, an Australian-set story based on true events, which saw three people trapped up a tree after a crocodile attack. Now Traucki returns solo with a new crocodile-centric story. This time around, the action shifts from the mangroves to an uncharted cave system. Two couples, Jen (Jessica McNamee) and Eric (Luke Mitchell), and Yolanda (Amali Golden) and Viktor (Benjamin Hoetjes), along with friend Cash (Anthony J. Sharpe), are headed on a cave exploration expedition. The group have varying levels of experience, but are all on board to celebrate Viktor’s new lease on life, having just received the news that his cancer is in remission. Rather than start off easy though, they decide to explore a potential new system that Cash stumbled across during a search and rescue. Things of course go wrong and the group find themselves trapped; worse still, they aren’t alone, having disturbed a particularly nasty crocodile. A battle of man versus beast ensues, but who will make it out alive?
Parallels can be drawn between the Black Water and 47 Metres Down movies. They feature different ancient beasts – crocodiles and sharks – but interestingly, each consecutive film in their respective series was directed by the same director. Each film also coincidentally saw the sequel switch location to a cave system. The results though, are miles apart. Somehow 47 Metres Down‘s director Johannes Roberts decided to completely disregard everything he did right the first time around, with 47 Metres Down Uncaged while Black Water: Abyss may have lost one half of the directing duo, but does maintain the same levels of tension and atmosphere, doing a commendable job of making you weary of the water.
The change of scenery, from trees and mangroves to watery caves, does throw up a few issues however, the biggest one being that the film plays out almost entirely in near-darkness. Our group of friends all have fancy long-lasting head torches, but those torches are pretty much our only source of light for the majority of the film. The result is that it’s a little tricky at times to fully work out who is who. This is further exacerbated by us not really getting much time (in the daylight) with our characters before things unravel. We get the headlines, but not enough to really endear any one of them to the audience. Their dynamics are also not the most intricate; there are revelations within the group that cause them to fracture, and whilst they might rock the character’s lives, the audience will have seen the development foreshadowed from very early on.
What the lack of light does aid in, is the tension and suspense, as it helps conceal the location of the prehistoric predator. With so much darkness coupled with the crocodile’s incredible camouflage skills, it feels as though it could conceivably be lurking within every frame of the film. It also helps tap further into the claustrophobic nature of caves, channelling some of that The Descent magic. If all the other films featuring activities like this going heinously wrong haven’t already put you off, then this one just might.
If you’re in the market for a gory animal attack movie then Black Water: Abyss probably isn’t the film for you. Our killer croc really doesn’t feature much; Traucki instead relies on the tension created by trying to guess where and when it will appear. This is similar to how our creature was presented in the original film, yet in the wake of other creature features such as Crawl, which was jammed pack full of alligator attacks, Black Water: Abyss feels a little anaemic.
Black Water: Abyss arrives in UK cinemas from Friday 10th July 2020.
Black Water: Abyss
Summary
A tonally faithful sequel that though lacking in inventive character developments is packed full of claustrophobic intensity.
