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Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Blood Surf (2001) Horror Crocodile

Blood Surf (2001) This commentary and synopsis is TOTALL FILL WITH SPOILERS.  A couple of surfers, Bog Hall (Dax Miller) and Jeremy (Joel West) are planning a stunt where they chum the water of the surfing area to attract sharks. With a television pair they film the boys surfing with the sharks. Blood surfing seems like a crazy idea but the young foolish surfers think the idea is awesome. Establishing a competitive relationship between the surfers furthers the idea that they will do most anything to one up each other. They support crew of  producer Zach Jardine (Matt Borlenghi) and director Cecily Herrold (Tziporah Malkah) (Sirens (1994) the Elle MacPherson vehicle when she was the hottest supermodel in the world) meet the locals Sonny (Chris Vertido) and wife Melba (Susan Africa) and are warned away from the beach they want to surf the next day. Shark infested waters are too dangerous. The character development is around the Bog trying to get the Cecily to sleep with him even though she is involved with the Zach. An Australian boat captain John Dirks (Duncan Regehr) tells them they are idiots to go near Palm Island but of course the group won't listen. Dirk's hot as hell blonde Arty (Taryn Reif) does a sexualized dance to attract the surfer guys and anyone else who will go for it. Later when the drunk sailors are sitting at the docks they happen to see her getting banged  by Dirks and Bog on makes some interesting eye contact while she takes it from behind. This is all secondary and not really pertinent to the plot other than to set up a character they will see later in the film.
 Awoken by Sonny's daughter Lemmya (Maureen Larrazabel) Jeremy flirts and they seem to hit it off. Its so she can go along with them and be his love interests for Jeremy. The film starts with someone's memory of people in the surf being eaten by something. It is revealed to be Dirks' who had the flashback in the beginning of the film. He was the leader of an adventure outing when all his passengers were eaten. Setting up his future decisions this is important to where his character is in his life.  The next day Sonny takes the surfer group to Palm Island. Chumming the water to attract sharks we see Jeremy is a bit weary about the event even though he says otherwise. We see the sharks arrive and things at set for the event. Cecily is going to shoot from the water so besides the two surfers it makes three in jeopardy. We get some surfing shots with sharks cutting across the waves just what Zach wants. Its not the best effects just fins seen from the surface and some underwater shots of sharks around the surfers and camerawoman. She gets surrounded by sharks but the fast acting Bog gets to her quickly before her shark proof suit can be tested. From the beach they see a shark get turned into a bloody splotch in the ocean and the group decides that more surfing is out of the question.
  Lemmya and Jeremy head off for some smooching in the woods, Zach, Cecily, smooch on the beach while Bob gets some more surfing in. Why? because they need the couple to be together without the fifth wheel. Melba and Sonny stay on the boat.  When Melba decides to take a swim again why?, Now there are two in the water and the tension mounts. Where Dax Miller has top billing in this feature I can guess who is more at risk. This is all broken up with the interpersonal scenes but viewers are really probably wanting some action at this point. There is no shortage of boobies by the women in this film but boy does it fail the Bechdel test. They are all seen through the male gaze and even though they initiate the sex it is all about them as beautiful things to be possessed by the men. The soft core sex shots and the cutting between that and the boat are weird. When Melba has a close call, something jumps from the water and takes Sonny right as Lemmya and Jeremy at the ruins are climaxing. It is just so wrong. Then nobody seems to notice this happens beside Melba who collapses crying on the boat.
  The sun sets and instead of having some scene about what happened we cut back to Lemmya topless getting near the water. She screams at the giant crocodile behind her. Cut to Jeremy who wakes and thinks she is playing hide and seek. Looking for her he only finds part of her clothes. Bob, Zach, and Cecily don't really believe him but coming back to the dock they find the remains of the boat and Sonny. Even still Zach wants the camera tape and looks to Bog to get it for him. There is a Jaws moment as he swims under water at the boat to retrieve the camera. The Crocodile attacks the dock they are on and they run for the shore as fast as they can. The beast is after them as they sprint through the jungle. Zach can't go any further and they stop in the tall grass. Instead of a crocodile they are met with men with guns who are not so happy to have them on the island. They are taken to a boat which they still hope means they can get back to civilization. The inevitable rape threat to Cecily is interrupted by the giant crocodile jumping out of the water just in time to eat her attecker. Taking advantage of the situation the boys push the remaining armed men into the water with the beast. The ones who make it to shore happen to blow up the boat with gunfire leaving Zach in the water to be picked up by Dirks who arrived on the scene just in time. On his boat the "Fury" they recover as they head back to the main island.
Since this film started with Dirks' memories it means that this could be his story. Dirks prowls his deck drinking trying to keep back the memories of the past while still feeling the crocodile is near. He is Ahab and the crocodile is his white whale. Zach is snooping about when Arty comes up on him and shows him the chum bucket for hunting the crocodile. He is hunting the crocodile and it does not matter if the groups safety in put in jeopardy.  This is Perth Australia and when a crocodile needs to be killed it needs to be killed.. Arty convinces Zach to make the capture of this animal the subject of his next TV show. So in the morning when everyone awakes they find themselves back at the Palm island.  Naming it "Big Mick" Zach makes his pitch to the rest of the group. John Dirks explains the danger of the situation by recounting how the crocodile dismembers and ate his last party. We go from this right into a scene from Jaws where the shark takes a barrel. When the engine blows it is full on Jaws. Dirks harpoons the creature and prepares to kill it. Cecily jumps in the water with her camera filming when the creature, but it breaks the binds they harpooned onto it. They save her just in time but like the shark in jaws the crocodile is up on the back of the boat and it gets one of the group.
  The crocodile now riled up is after them and the boat is dying. Dirks breaks for the reef to ground the boat leaving the group stranded in the beast's turf.. John will stay behind hoping to blow the ship and the crocodile up while the others cross the reef and make there way to the island. The film is moving towards climax. We lose another of the group surfing towards shore but not making it. Dirks and the creature have it out on the boat like Quint, this Captain is cut in half and his life ends in failure. No explosion means Bog has to head back to the boat for the explosives. The two women head for the ruins on the island where they were told the water is too alkaline for the crocodile to tolerate. Foreshadowing a future risk we see one of the gun toting bad guys has survived and is closing in on the women. Bog finds the explosives while the women's risk of rape reappears. Cecily tries to avoid getting banged but the brute. Such a problematic film when it comes to the female characters.
 We get crocodile POV to show us it is hunting the women. They are slightly lost but manage to find a rope bridge with rotting board where they can see the crocodile below and know they are at risk. They make it to the ruins where supposedly the water is too alkaline for the Croc. The water does seem to stop the creature but it camps out on the shore trapping the women. They only talk about if Cecily likes Bob which means that neither of these women seem to have any agency at all. Arty was with Dirk because he won her in a dart game. She is a thing that was possessed, while Cecily is just a love interest for both Zach and Bog and a rape target for two different thugs. Bog arrives with the explosives and places what looks like C4 around the ruins. It's a plan with Bog as the bait and the girls hitting the switch they mean to crush the crocodile. The staging is a bit ridiculous as he tries to attract  the beast by throwing rocks at it. The plan does eventually work dropping tons of stones onto it in a comical CGI chase. As they leave Arty in blind anger kicks the crocodile until it wakes up and eats her. The other two run and jump onto a vine with the crocodile leaping behind them jaws ready to crunch. It gets impales on a stalagmite or jagged rock that just happens to be there. The survivors kiss and Cecily claimed by the man and the film ends with her being into it.
  Needless to say this was not the best of films. Problematic with its approach to female characters who have no agency but are instead just there things for the men to have and save. The 2001 CGI is really quite not up to the great standards we have today. What little we see looks pretty bad. The script by Sam Bernard (The last credit he has) and Robert L. Levy (also the last writing credit but he has gone on to be a successful producer.) is linear with trite character development that leaves the viewer not really caring about the characters. The Directing by James D.R. Hickox  ( Detention (2010) ) is adequate to get the tale told.  So this one is not a recommend if you want an opinion about that.

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