Day 3 - Rogue | 31 Days of Halloween
Day 3 of The 31 Days of Halloween brings us to one of my favorite subgenres: When Animals Attack.
For this entry, I went a little off the beaten path with Rogue, a 2007 Australian thriller about a giant killer crocodile stalking the passengers of a stranded tour boat. It stars Radha Mitchell, Michael Vartan, and Sam Worthington and is written and directed by Michael McLean as his follow-up to Wolf Creek, another Australian-set horror film.
I intentionally avoided the usual heavy hitters here like Jaws, Lake Placid, and Deep Blue Sea, not because they aren’t great (they are), but because I wanted something I hadn’t actually seen before. And honestly? Rogue ended up being a pretty effective surprise.
You can feel the budget limitations, especially when it comes to the crocodile effects. The CG croc is used sparingly, and wisely so. McLean leans heavily on lighting, framing, and suggestion to sell the danger, all hallmark tools of the genre, which go a long way in keeping the tension intact. It also helps that the cast is more than capable. Radha Mitchell, in particular, brings a level of credibility that elevates the material, especially considering this comes not long after Phone Booth, Man on Fire, and Silent Hill, all personal favorites of mine.
Between the solid performances, suitable direction, and a handful of genuinely tense sequences, Rogue largely works.
With that being sad, it doesn’t all work.
The finale veers into borderline ridiculous territory, and while I can forgive a slightly over-the-top ending in this kind of movie, there are two bigger issues that are harder to overlook: far too many annoying characters survive, and, unforgivably, they kill the dog. The ending I can live with. Those other two? Much tougher to excuse. That last one alone will probably keep me from revisiting this at all in the future simply because of how brutal the kill is.
Interestingly, Rogue came out the same year as Primeval, another killer croc movie with plenty of its own problems but one I remember being fairly entertained by. That might be worth a rewatch soon, if only as a point of comparison.
If you’re looking to explore more When Animals Attack territory, a few recommendations:
The Ghost and the Darkness - still the gold standard for killer lion movies, with great performances from Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas
The Edge - a brutal, character-driven killer bear film starring Alec Baldwin and Anthony Hopkins
Backcountry - raw, brutal, and painfully realistic in all the best ways
Give them a watch, let me know what you think, and join me tomorrow for Day 4, where the theme shifts to Remake or Adaptation.
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