Man oh man do I love a good Killer Croc flick. Problem is ... there's maybe one true "classic" of the sub-genre (that'd be Lewis Teague's and John Sayles' Alligator, of course), and the rest of 'em are pretty much floating crap. Over the past year or so we've seen a bit of a resurgence in the category: Lake Placid 2 is mindless stupidity; Stewart Raffill's Croc is slightly better than that; that Primeval one is a passable enough time-waster; and the indie Aussie import Black Water is actually quite good, although more of a slow-burn nature thriller than a chomp-'em-up horror flick -- but what of Rogue?Yes, Rogue. Ring any bells? Sophomore effort from Wolf Creek director Greg Mclean, Rogue looks to be a standard enough Killer Croc flick that stars Michael Vartan, Radha Mitchell and Sam Worthington. The fact that the flick has been sitting on a shelf over at Weinstein Co. for over a year might seem like a red flag, but that's why the world needs horror geeks like me: So I can tell you that early reaction to the flick has been surprisingly positive! The flick came out in Australia last November, and while it didn't do a whole lot of business, I've been hearing rumblings from my horror colleagues that the movie's quite good!
So obviously I was elated when the Weinsteins stopped playing musical chairs with the flick's release date. It was recently reported that Rogue would hit "the top ten U.S. markets" on April 25. My fingers were crossed. (Philly has to be one of the top ten markets, right?) Unfortunately, the "top ten markets" plan has been scrapped. Hell, the flick isn't even opening in New York City, let alone in its petulant little cousin called Philadelphia. According to Shock, Rogue will be available to movie fans in Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Miami, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, and Tampa. Yeah, us east-coasters don't even know what a "krokodile" is. Dammit. Good thing we're expecting a quick video store turnaround for this title. (Cuz I just wanna see the darn thing already.)
Also at Shock I discovered a VERY cool new poster for Rogue. It's a simple concept, really, but it works for me. Here's hoping Bob and Harvey stick with this style for their "Dimension Extreme" DVD release. Here's further hoping they send a print down to Philly and hold a very special screening of Rogue for me and some good friends.
1. I too have been craving some ROGUE, though BLACK WATER went quite a ways to scratch the itch. Frankly I'll be impressed if ROGUE tops it. I was on a base in the middle of the Qatari desert when I saw a crocodile flash on a TV monitor and BLACK WATER induced memories sent a shiver down my spine and my heart rate sped up just a tad. I loved it.
The release shuffle I'm more pissed about is ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE. I'll be importing the July UK DVD of it before it ever sees the light of a US theater, thanks to the bastards at Senator.
Posted at 8:19PM on Apr 10th 2008 by Peter Hall