Rogue

Image credit: Blu-Ray.com

While I didn’t start my cinematic journey as a horror fan, through working my way through The Book, I have discovered a real love and appreciation for the genre and, it’s funny, one of my ‘guilty pleasures’ (I guess is the right term) has spawned from this odd fascination: eco-horror.

For those who might not know the term, eco-horror refers to that subgenre of monster movies that take place in nature and feature nature as the villain (Jaws being the most widely recognised). I couldn’t tell you why I’m fascinated by this genre (as honestly most of the films in the repertoire are pretty horrendous), there’s just something particularly entertaining about how it can either be really good (like Jaws) or really bad (like Razorback). The other night, my partner and I indulged and checked out Rogue.

Set in the Australian outback (where else?) Rogue tells the story of a group of tourists that get stranded on a swamp island and laid siege to by a giant croc.

While I can totally understand the desire to make monster movies featuring crocodiles, they are amongst the nastiest predators around, being dangerous on both land and in water, I’m yet to find a movie that truly gets them right. One of the most satisfying things about eco-horror movies is when the filmmakers get the behaviours of the ‘monsters’ right: believability is vital for a good eco-horror flick, though a lack of understanding can make for a hilariously bad one too.

Rogue was kind of there, taking into account the crocs’ natural territorialism and aggressiveness. But this is where the believability stopped.

While we all know crocs can grow to be quite large, this one kind of pushed the limits, being so huge it wouldn’t be able to support its own weight in reality. The suspense of the water attacks and underwater shots are one thing, but as soon as we see the monster itself, the fear diminishes somewhat, especially when we see it on land (like Bruce the rubber shark).

Image credit: FlixList

But while the physical fearsomeness of the monster doesn’t last long, the film does a relatively ok job of maintaining suspense and depicting the breakdown of social cohesiveness under times of great stress. Like any classic monster movie be it Night of the Living Dead or Jaws, the ugly side of human nature, when put under threat of extinction, comes out and this is no different for Rogue with a large portion of enjoyment coming in the form of yelling at the characters’ idiocy.

The performances are all fine, though for a film like this I don’t think audiences are expecting much, and despite a few behavioural tweaks regarding crocs’ eating habits, Rogue is not an altogether terrible film. It’s just not altogether great either.

Director: Greg McLean

Cast: Radha Mitchell, Michael Vartan, Sam Worthington, Caroline Brazier, Stephen Curry, Celia Ireland, John Jarratt, Heather Mitchell, Geoff Morrell, Damien Richardson, Robert Taylor, Barry Otto, and Mia Wasikowska