Black Water (2006/Sony DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: C+ Feature: C+
If I got
a dollar for every time I saw a DVD arrive that was Horror genre and said it
was based on a true story, I could pay for a noticeable chunk of either the
U.S. National Deficit or the Iraq debacle.
In these cases, I am amazed at how bad the final product is, as if a
bunch of idiots thought they were doing something original when they are boring
and tired. So it was to my pleasant
surprise that the Andrew Traucki/David Nerlich film Black Water (2006) succeeded where literally thousands of projects
have failed.
Instead
of the usually tired, color-gutted, shaky camera work boredom people are still
tolerating with gimmicky like Cloverfield,
this turns out to be a very intelligent, even ambitious low-budget project
about three people (including a couple) who go for a trip and land up getting
menaced by a killer crocodile. We even
recently saw a very, very, very bad film called Croc that did everything wrong that this project got right. Maybe it is because it is from the
less-pretentious Australian film industry, but definitely it is from
intelligent storytellers who are mature adults, treating the audience with
respect for a change.
Of
course, we have seen much of this before and there was nothing new here, yet
just doing this in a serious, realistic way, makes up for the many conventions
this story cannot avoid. As a result, it
is the first time in a while in this genre you actually believe what you see
pretty much happened in real life and that it is not just another oaf thinking
there is gold in the millionth retread of Texas
Chain Saw Massacre. If you must see
this kind of film, you will not be able to do better than Black Water and sadly, for a long time to come.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image apparently originated in digital HD and
looks better than many such productions, yet it is still softer and color
limited than it would be were it filmed.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 is better with a decent, if not perfect soundfield
and decently recorded dialogue. The
combination is just fine for this low def format. Extras include a making of featurette,
Traucki/Nerlich feature-length commentary and deleted scenes, all of interest. Like the main attraction, it is worth a good
look.
- Nicholas Sheffo
