A tasteful horror

CLASSIFICATION  CP Catholic Patronage

RATING  Four of 5 Stars

Distributed by Village Roadshow (released in Australia on 8 July 2007, in UK on 8 November 2007, in the US on 25 April 2008, and in the Philippines on 13 August 2008)

93 minutes

 

The Film

Rogue is an Australian horror film inspired by the true story of Sweetheart, a giant Australian crocodile that attacked boats between 1974 and 1979. Greg McLean wrote, directed and produced. It won the 2007 Australian Film Institute award for Best Visual Effects and 3rd place in the 2009 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards for Best Limited-Release/Direct-to-Video Film.

 

The Preview

 

The Story

The film opens with a visual sweep over the Kakadu National Park of Australia’s Northern Territory where a water buffalo went into the river for a late morning drink. Suddenly, a large crocodile emerged from the water and quickly snatched it into the water.

Meanwhile, American travel journalist Pete McKell (Michael Vartan) arrived in a nearby village from a bus. He is researching for an article, and plants to join a group of tourists on a crocodile-watching river cruise in the National Park. Ryan’s Wildlife River Cruise serves a group of tourists consisting of Pete, photographer Simon (Stephen Curry), a family (Elizabeth, Allen and Sherry), two locals (Gwen and Russell), a couple (Mary Ellen and Everett Kennedy), tour captain Kate Ryan (Radha Mitchell), and Kevin, Ryan’s dog.

Along the way, locals Neil (Sam Worthington) and Collin (Damien Richardson) run into them by barring their tour boat with the duo’s speed boat. Only when Kate threatened to run over them did Collin pulled the boat away quickly, throwing Neil into the water to the tourists’ amusement. When the boat moved on, Russell (John Jarratt) throws the cremated ashes of her wife into the river.

As they were about to leave back to the base, Everett (Robert Taylor) caught a flare in his video camera, indicating a distress signal. And more flares followed, already seen by the tourists. Despite their general reluctance, they decided to check the source. So they move forward into the internal part of the Park.

When they reached a dead-end lake and found nothing, Pete suggested they go back as the sun is getting down. They were about to turn around when Kate found something floating, a few meters ahead of them. They saw the forward portion of a small capsized boat. When they approached it, something bumped them underwater, so hard it punctured a hole at the floor of the boat. The situation forced Kate to bring the boat into an islet at the middle of the lake before the boat submerges.

On the islet, Russell observed that the plant growth can only be found at the higher and central part of the islet, indicating that the place they stand up on will be submered in water by night. Panic ensued as he tried to cross the lake towards teh main land, with Everett forcing him off the water. As the argument heated up and Everett watching them from the edge of the islet, the group hears a hush in the water and Everett disappeared. They know that the large croc living in the area took him.

Fear descended upon them, just as Neil Collin came back on the same boat making fun at them. Suddenly, something hit their boat from underwater, and both get thrown into the water. Neil managed to swim towards the islet; Collin failed and disappeared underwater.

When the night descended, Neil suggets that he will cross the water silently with a rope that will be tied to another tree across the bank. When the rope is ready, Mary Ellen Kennedy (Caroline Brazier) volunteers to go first. However when she reached the middle of the roof, dangling over the silent lakewater, she froze in panic, and cannot move forward. Allen (Geoff Morrell) panics and asks Sherry (Mia Wasikowska) to be ready to cross with him despite being warned that the rope could not take three at the same time. The dead tree holding the rope in the opposite bank fell and the three fell into the water.

Meanwhile Neil tried to get back the rope but the croc attacked him. Allen just reached the islet bank when the croc pounced on him, and dragged him underwater. Pete suggested that they yse the anchor to bait the croc to win time for all of them to swim across.

When the croc took the bait, Pete stayed on the isle to hold on the line as the rest swim across the water. Kate was the last to cross when the croc got away from the bait and attacked her. With the lull created, Pete swam across with Kevin, looking for Kate as he passes where he last saw him.

Alone with Kevin and lef behind by the rest, Pete tries to find his way through the forest only to sumble into the home of the giant croc as he followed Kevin who ran ahead of him. There he found the dead body of Collin and then Kate who appears to be alive still.

Pete decided to carry Kate back out of the croc’s lair. Kevin ran off ahead of them. Outside his barks suddenly stopped as a huge shadow moving in covers the sunlight with its huge body. The giant croc returns. Pete hid Kate but not before the animal noticed them.

The croc attacks them relentlessly until Pete used himself as a bait to tempt it to attack him and hit with a sharp stick fixed into a stable rock. The croc took the challenge and launced. The stick pierced its head instantly killing it. Kate, ravaged in her legs, remained conscious though as Pete carried him away.

A few hours later he meets the rest of the tourists with rescue personnel and paramedics tending onto them. Kate was airlifted by a copter.

The film ends with a wall in the restaurant filled with newspaper clippings on incidents involving crocodile attacks in the area. At the center of it was added a new clip on what happened to Kate and the tourists.

 

The Review

Rogue displays a beautiful panorama of the Kakadu National Park–its river, birds, buffaloes, and of course crocodiles. The plot is well-polished, making the situations logical and believable. There are some sticky situations that floor the characters in making a deadly decision that risk their lives.

Public safety.The film touches the issue on public safety in the hands of public utility operators. It asks the question: which must come first, the safety of people on its charge or someone sending distress signals? The film proposes that anyone on the shoes of the person in distress would want the rescue as a first priority. The tourists decided in favor of this proposition and lives got lost in the process. It left open an important question: should the lives of many rescuers be risked to save another lives? The moral justification however as seen in the film is the inadequate appraisal of the danger facing the rescuers. Should the danger has been known well before making that rescue decision, it would have been wiser to leave the rescue to the professionals.

Personal safety. A related safety issue tackled in the film is the choice between self-preservation and risking one’s life to save someone else’s. In ethics, it is issue between altruism (my life is less important than the other’s life) and rationalism (my life is more important than the other’s life). In the movie, Everett tried to prevent Russell from foolishly jumping into the croc-infested water only to be devoured by it. Allen also tried to save himself first by forcing to take the rope beyond its carrying capacity only to jeopardize two other lives in the process, and even losing his own consequently. Kate, on the other hand, took time to swim as she told those who have crossed to move ahead, only to  get herself attacked by the croc. Meanwhile, Pete who chose to be the last to cross teh lake in order to let the others save themselves first got his chance to cross safely. The film apparently does not propose any answer to this ethical dilemma, only showing how the extreme of these choices can look like.

Counterproductiveness of uncontrolled emotions. The film proposes that negative emotions such as panic while it can spur people to move, can put many people in danger. Russell’s panic resulted to the death of the person who tried to save him, Everett. Mary Ellen got hijacked by her emotions and froze on the rope across the dangerous water. Allen’s panic almost killed her daughter Sherry and that of Mary Ellen. The film clearly proposed that the best way to handle a very tense and life-threatening situation is not to act on fear and panic but to stay calm and focused on solutions.

Miracles and the will to survive. At times, the last option can be the only solution left. And a man fighting to survive can find all he needs to eventually survive. This happened to Pete. After doing what he can to avoid facing the great croc and getting away, Pete found himself in a situation where he could no longer run away and have to face the monster squarely. When this happened, he found a way to kill the animal instead.

 

The Verdict

Rogue is a horror film handled with tasteful subtlety and without the usually excessive brutality common in horror films. It succeeded in creating a more realistic storyline that provides a relatively gently frying of the viewers’ nerves. It has also artfully blended beautiful scenery with the fear-inspiring sights of a predatory crocodile. It is a well-thought story as well as stimulating to the eyes and nerves. While the scripting is bereft with philosophical statements, the story itself can be educational to a perceptive Catholic. Everyone in the family can enjoy this film gainfully except for the younger children who might not be able to take well the natural violence in an encounter between men and a beast.

Reviewed by Zosimo Literatus.

 

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