Since watching Mark Hartley's tremendous documentary Not Quite Hollywood,I've been keeping my eyes open for any "lost" Ozploitation films.My search eventually led to me finding this film,and with having heard in Hartley's film,that due to the film having spent the past few decades in legal troubles, and the chance of it ever getting a "legit" release being very low,I decided that this was an Ozploitation film that I had to snap up right away...
The plot:
Travelling up a river,that is near by a small town,where a community of indigenous Australians live,a group of hunters cant believe their eyes,when they catch a glimpse of the largest crocodile that any of them have seen in their lives!.Realiseing that cacheting the huge croc would bring in a huge amount of cash,the hunters rush to get hold of their guns.Suddenly,from out of nowhere,the crocodile appears from behind their small boat,and completely tears the boat,and the hunters apart.As the crocodile starts to make a list of victims, (with a young child being the latest one to join the list) local police officer Steve Harris is called in to stop the crocs murderous rampage.Visiting the near-by indigenous community,Harris is told that they will not allow the crocodile to be killed,due to it being a "dreaming" crocodile,which has been in the river for as long as anyone can remember.With all of the newspaper headlines,that the croc has grabbed,a group of publicity hungry hunters decide that they will be the ones to bring the beast to shore.With Steve realising that he is running out of time,and that his boss and on/off girlfriend are telling him that he must kill the crocodile right now,Harris chooses to ignore their ideas,and instead do his own thing,which he hopes will keep the beast safe for the indigenous people,whilst also stopping its rampage dead in the water.
View on the film:
Whilst it is very easy to see the problems that the cast and crew had with the fake Croc in the film, (which in Not Quite Hollywood,is reported to have constantly broken down during the shoot!)director Arch Nicholson never lets these disadvantages come in the way of him creating a wild log flume ride of a film.For the scenes in the river,where everyone is looking for the murdering Croc,Nicholson gives them an excellent swamp feeling,that makes the moments when the crocodile appears to grab its next victims to be something very special.Along with the river action,Nicholson keeps the action on land moving at a rapid pace,with the scenes where Sam is meeting the indigenous people being a terrific clash of cultures.due to Sam looking stunned,when the tribe start to tell tales about the wonderful "dreaming croc,who is only going around eating people because it just wants to be filled with tucker!)Looking at the constantly entertaining screenplay by Sonia Borg and Stephen Cross,(adapted from a novel by Graham Webb)I was initially disappointed that the film was taking its time,and not just jumping straight to the action.But as the film went on,I realised the this was actually a good move by Borg and Webb,since it got the stunning action/chase scenes to fit smoothly into the rest of this fantastic film,and made sure that they weren't a separate entity.
Final view on the film:
A fantastic "genre" film,packed with a terrific mix of action/adventure,comedy and a good amount of "Creature-Horror",which ends up making this film,a sadly forgotten,must see Ozploitation.
