Review for Black Water: Abyss

In Black Water: Abyss five friends go exploring a system of caves in Australia only to fine themselves trapped with water rising. This would be bad enough if it wasn't for the fact that there is also a crocodile down there hunting them. The five friends must find a way to escape before they either drown or become the crocodile's next meal in this sequel to the 2007 film Black Water.

This film has so much going for it when I first saw it, one of the writers Ian John Ridley was responsible for many episodes of the excellent Wentworth TV show. The Director Andrew Traucki has been behind the original film, aswell as the excellent Shark film The Reef. It seems that he has some kind of obsession with things attacking you in the water, but I do feel that with this film they were simply treading water.

All of the actors are painfully bad and when you consider there are only five (not including the first two Croc-fodder) within the cast and the two couples and an eccentric friend is a dynamic that should work, but it doesn't. None of the characters are developed enough for me to even care about whether they live or die and by the end I was just waiting for certain characters to meet their maker.

The tension is quite shallow (excuse the pun) and the film relies more on jump scares which are fine in general, but when that's all a film can offer it means there is very little in regards to re-watchability. Whether you enjoy it or not, and there are moments to enjoy, it is unlikely you would watch this again.

Despite its shortcomings in regards to plot, acting or indeed any originality, it must be said that the effects of this film are first rate and I was impressed by all the crocodile effects which appeared to be a mix of practical of CGI. It is a shame there is no Commentary or Behind the Scenes features to explain how they achieved this as they were a shining positive light in an otherwise quite unremarkable film.

As I said, there are no extras and so this disk must live or die on the quality of the film and unfortunately apart from a few decent scares and some pretty impressive effects it is very run of the mill. It could almost be a cookie cutter of any and every horror/slasher and creature film that has ever been made. Black Water: Abyss is not a great film and coming over a decade after its original film (which was not very good either) you wonder what the creators thought they could bring to the creation of this project. If they do think of anything better for the next sequel let's hope they can make it snappy.