Quick Review:Rogue(2007)

Don't be fooled by the cheesy dvd cover or the fact that its dimension extreme

I definitely have a soft spot for animal attack films and even though most haven't been good I still always keep my hopes up.Rogue is not new,it came out in 2008 and Ive watched a few times and never got around to reviewing it.So here goes

Rogue is directed by Greg Mclean of Wolf Creek fame,one I never cared for that much.

The Plot:Pete played by Michael Vartan ( an American journalist on assignment in Australia's beautiful Northern territory) joins a tourist group led by Kate(the adorable Radha Mitchell) on a river tour of the Northern Territory,which of course is home to the worlds largest population of saltwater crocodiles.After seeing a flare Kate decides to take the tour and investigate only to end up victims themselves as they are attacked by a huge saltwater crocodile and left stranded on a tidal island which will be under-water by nightfall.


I know,its sounds like your typical lame animal attack scy-fy movie only its not,its much better.Mclean definitely did his homework and the less you see more scary it is approach works as he keeps the crocodile off-screen until about the 50 min mark.We see it in the dark,in shadows,underwater and so on but don't get a real good glimpse of its amazing size until the final confrontation.And I assure you it looks pretty impressive and intimidating,and Mclean even had a group of his people study the actual movements of real-life crocodiles so it would look more realistic since that is what he was aiming for.


I also dug that it wasn't just attack after attack after attack,he let the characters flesh themselves out and for us to get to know them and they all come across extremely likable and not like many horror films today where I just wished they would all get killed .Kate(Radha Mitchell) really feels for the situation she has put her group in and wants to do whatever she can to get them out of this. Pete(Vartan)isn't the outdoor type but you soon learn he is a lot smarter than he looks and he kind of takes on the calming influence for the group.The rest of the characters(which include a sick mother and her daughter and husband,a midlife couple with no kids,a manish-dykish looking lady,an odd but likable younger man with a expensive camera and a older man who has lost his wife some time ago)also did a fine job of staying together despite some hairy problems that befall them later on..I definitely felt scared for them,and Damn I would be freaking out if I was stranded on some island with a huge crocodile stalking me,Id shit myself

The film also was helped by its environment the Northern Territory looks absolutely beautiful and Mclean did some nice camera work showing this and showing the vast wildlife present there.I actually want to go there one day if I ever get the chance,though Im not so sure if Id take a river tour.

So with Rogue you get a pretty damn good and evenly paced crocodile film that packs a serious bite with some nice attacks,some damn scary scenes and some good characters.Definitely worth seeing if you have a soft stop for these type of films like me


so you know-this was based loosely on a true story of a crocodile in the northern territory which staked his claim to a certain part of the river
Sam Worthington(of Terminator Salvation,avatar and clash of the titans) has a nice part in the film before he got pretty well known
8/10