Rogue | |
---|---|
Directed by | Greg McLean |
Written by | Greg McLean |
Produced by | Matt Hearn David Lightfoot Greg McLean |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Will Gibson |
Edited by | Jason Ballantine |
Music by | Frank Tetaz |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Roadshow Films (Australia) [2] The Weinstein Company (International) [1] |
Release date |
|
Running time | 92 minutes |
Country | Australia |
Language | English |
Budget | $25 million [3] |
Box office | $4.6 million [2] |
Rogue is a 2007 Australian horror film written and directed by Greg McLean. Starring Michael Vartan, Radha Mitchell and Sam Worthington, it follows a group of tourists in Australia who fall prey to a 7 meter long man-eating saltwater crocodile.
The film was inspired by the true story of Sweetheart, a giant male saltwater crocodile that attacked boats in the late 1970s, although Sweetheart was never responsible for an attack on a human. Rogue received positive reviews from critics, but was a commercial failure.
It is the second and last film from Dimension Films to have the involvement of Village Roadshow Pictures, the other being 1992's Fortress .
American travel journalist Pete McKell joins a small group of tourists on a crocodile-watching river cruise in Kakadu National Park of Australia's Northern Territory, led by wildlife researcher Kate Ryan. Toward the end of the cruise, Everett spots a flare in the distance and the group heads upriver to investigate. They eventually come across a half-sunken wreck when something crashes into their boat, splitting the side.
Kate manages to steer the boat ashore a small island in the middle of the river. Kate realizes they are in the territory of a large crocodile and explains they must leave the island by nightfall, as the tide will start to rise and the island will be submerged. Everett suddenly is killed, pulled into the water by an unseen predator. Two locals, Neil Kelly and Collin, arrive at the island but the beast upturns their boat; Neil swims to the island but Collin has been killed.
As night falls, Neil carefully swims to the riverbank in order to string a rope between two trees, creating a zip-line to allow the group to cross the river. Everett's wife Mary Ellen crosses first, only to freeze in fear halfway across. Allen, becoming impatient and hostile, takes matters into his own hands by attempting to get himself and his daughter Sherry across with Mary Ellen still on the line. While trying to secure the rope, Neil is attacked and killed by the beast. The tree holding the rope breaks and the three on the line fall into the water. They swim back to the island, but as Allen crawls up the shore, the beast quickly lunges out of the water and throws him back into the river, where he is killed. The beast is revealed to be a rogue, 7 meter long saltwater crocodile.
Later that night, Pete suggests hooking the beast while everyone else swims to the riverbank; Neil's two dead birds replace Kate's dog named Kevin, the initial bait idea. After a long wait, the anchor is suddenly pulled and the group makes a break for the far shore. The beast eventually lets go of the bait, seizes Kate and drags her underwater. Pete hurries across the river with Kevin in tow and into the bush behind the others.
As day breaks, Pete is forced to chase Kevin into the bush after he runs off. He falls down a narrow chute into a large cave, where he discovers Neil's partial corpse. The cave is the beast's lair and the dog leads him to a severely injured Kate. Pete attempts to carry her out but Kevin runs off to the head of the cave, where it is heard being killed by the beast. After several attempts on them both, the beast takes a chunk out of Pete's hand while he grabs a piece of bone and stabs one of the beast's eyes. Pete eventually props a large broken log against a boulder, with the sharp end pointing outwards, so when the beast lunges at him, it is impaled and killed. Pete escapes from the cave with Kate and finds the tourists and paramedics.
A newspaper article later details Pete's heroic battle with the beast and rescue of Kate.
Filming took place on-location around Yellow Water Billabong, Katherine Gorge, and Arnhem Land.
Rogue was released on DVD in Australia on 29 May 2008. [4] The DVD's special features include "The Making of Rogue" documentary, four featurettes, and a theatrical trailer. The US and UK DVDs feature an additional audio commentary. As of 2013, Rogue has been released on Blu-ray in Canada and the UK. The Canadian disc features the film only, whilst the UK disc includes all of the aforementioned extras, bar the trailer. [5]
Rogue debuted in the Australian box office on 11 November 2007 making A$667,194. After 11 weeks in the nation's cinemas, it left making A$1.8 million. It was released in the United States on 25 April 2008 to only 10 theaters. In its first weekend, it made US$7,711 and remained in theatres for four more days before exiting with a domestic total of US$10,452. As of 8 November 2009, Rogue has made A$5,984,448 worldwide. [6]
On the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 89% approval rating, based on 18 critic reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. [7]
Melbourne's Herald Sun critic Leigh Paatsch gave the film three out of five stars stating that, "If you must see at least one killer croc movie before you die, it may as well be this polished little Australian schlocker". [8] Sydney Morning Herald critic Sandra Hall gave the movie three and a half out of five stars writing that, "[I]t's almost elegant. Its only disadvantage is it conjures up inevitable comparisons with Jaws ...a benchmark the film has no hope of achieving". [9] Variety's Richard Kuipers praised the film as a fairly formulaic but solid B-movie with good visual effects, "regular scares[,] and a monster worth the ticket price." [10]
Award | Category | Subject | Result |
---|---|---|---|
AACTA Award (2008 AFI Awards) | Best Visual Effects | Andrew Hellen | Won |
Dave Morley | Won | ||
Jason Bath | Won | ||
John Cox | Won | ||
Australian Screen Editors | Avid Award for Best Editing on a Feature Film | Jason Ballantine | Nominated |
AWGIE Award | Best Original Feature Film | Greg McLean | Nominated |
Fangoria Chainsaw Award | Best Limited-Release/Direct-to-Video Film | 3rd place | |
Sitges Film Festival | Best Film | Greg McLean | Nominated |
The saltwater crocodile is a crocodilian native to saltwater habitats, brackish wetlands and freshwater rivers from India's east coast across Southeast Asia and the Sundaic region to northern Australia and Micronesia. It has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 1996. It was hunted for its skin throughout its range up to the 1970s, and is threatened by illegal killing and habitat loss. It is regarded as dangerous to humans.
Wolf Creek is a 2005 Australian horror film written, co-produced and directed by Greg McLean and starring John Jarratt, Nathan Phillips, Cassandra Magrath and Kestie Morassi. Its plot concerns three backpackers who find themselves taken captive and subsequently hunted by Mick Taylor, a serial killer, in the Australian outback. The film was ambiguously marketed as being "based on true events", while its plot bore elements reminiscent of the real-life murders of backpackers by Ivan Milat in the 1990s and Bradley Murdoch in 2001, both of which McLean used as inspiration for the screenplay.
John Jarratt is an Australian television film actor, producer and director and TV presenter who rose to fame through his work in the Australian New Wave. He has appeared in a number of film roles including Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Summer City (1977), The Odd Angry Shot (1979), We of the Never Never (1982), Next of Kin (1982), and Dark Age (1987). He portrayed the antagonist Mick Taylor in the Wolf Creek franchise. He voiced the protagonist's father, Jack Hunter, in an audio drama adaptation of The Phoenix Files. He is also known for his recurring role in the drama series McLeod's Daughters.
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