Blood Surf (2000) Review

WEEK 4: WHAT A CROC

Blood Surf (2000) Review

Though it didn’t get released in North America until 2001, Blood Surf technically came out the same year as Crocodile, and shared the same attacking animal concept, but with a very different premise to put humans and a monster reptile in the same environment. Crocodile did get a direct sequel, 2002’s Crocodile 2: Death Swamp, but I like to think of Blood Surf as its unofficial follow-up.

A sleazy producer and sexy film director travel to Australia to do the unthinkable: film two surfers riding waves on chummed waters with killer sharks swimming around them! The new “sport” is called blood surfing, and it’s as crazy as it sounds. After recruiting a local captain and his sailing team to take them to the shark-infested waters off the shore of an ominous island, the surfers get in the water with the sharks, along with the director, who is wearing chainmail (the surfers, unfortunately for them, are just in their shorts). They attempt blood surfing, and...It goes well. Against all odds, none of the sharks attack or kill anyone. But then one of the sharks mysteriously explodes in an eruption of red water, and before long, a totally different threat appears: a 30-foot saltwater crocodile with the craving to kill any and all humans in its path!

Blood Surf starts out with a pretty original premise, and there’s no initial indication the movie will be about a killer crocodile. In fact, the croc is barely in the first two acts, and it focuses on the characters and the blood surfing instead. One of the surfers is really obnoxious (the other is more likable) and reminded me of Stifler from American Pie, but he becomes more tolerable as the movie progresses. All around, the characters are not awful, and the movie keeps you guessing better than other killer croc movies as to who might survive and who might become a snack. The grizzled ship captain is cliché but cool, his girlfriend is bitchy but hot (speaking of hot girls, this has to be the most nude-filled croc movie out there), and there are a few other memorable side characters. The most annoying individual is undoubtedly the film producer (he’s also the worst actor among the bunch), but the movie is smart enough to be self-aware of how much of an asshole he is, and he eventually gets his just-desserts.

 

The blood surfing sequence is pretty sweet, and it’s set up to make it look like it will be a total disaster (both from a visual effects standpoint and in the context of the story), but luckily is far from it. The visual techniques used to put the sharks in with the surfers are not too bad, and you expect the croc to show up, but it doesn’t. Usually with higher quality killer animal movies, seeds are planted as early as possible about the forthcoming attacker, whether through visual cues or brief glimpses, but here, the crocodile just comes out of nowhere, and while it would’ve been nice to have seen a little more setup, it ultimately doesn’t matter, because once the croc attacks, the blood starts flowing.

After the exploding shark, the characters split up, and it’s the perfect setup for potential mayhem. You’re not really sure who’s going to get attacked, but you know it’s going to happen. While the croc isn’t shown much in the first or second acts, it dominates the third, and achieves more than a couple impressive kills. Unlike the DVD covers of so many killer animal movies, the croc on this one actually looks exactly like what’s featured in the movie. It’s not anything special; I’m just shocked how close the poster/DVD cover got. I realized the crocodile in this movie is almost the exact opposite of the one in Crocodile, both in terms of design and special effects. The croc in Crocodile, in a nutshell, is as follows: pretty good animatronics, pretty awful cgi, makes unrealistic sounds, but shown often. The croc in Blood Surf: pretty awful animatronics, pretty good cgi, makes realistic sounds, but not shown very often. All matter of special effects were used in this movie—cgi, animatronics, miniatures—and I bet if cgi wasn’t at their disposal, they would’ve went for stop motion. The effects are part of what makes the ending hilarious, though I don’t think it was intentional. The croc's eventual demise is also hilarious.

While there’s a lot of fun to be had with Blood Surf, and the filmmakers clearly knew their target audience, there are still a few drawbacks and missed opportunities. The sleazy film producer tries to entice the captain into taking them out on his boat by offering some cash . Cap's girlfriend complains when he doesn’t accept, then she does a sexy dance, and afterwards, he simply agrees to take the producer and his friends out. It’s clear the male members of the group are captivated by his girlfriend’s beauty, so why didn’t he demand more money? It’s just a small nitpicky thing, but it would’ve made the scene funnier and a little more rational.

 

While the blood surfing aspect of the plot is great,  it’s no longer what the movie’s about by the end, and it devolves into a generic situation that’s basically Jaws with a crocodile instead of a great white shark (there are also a couple obligatory and very unsubtle references to Jaws and Godzilla wedged in there). Earlier on, a character gets visions of the croc attacking people, but it’s done in a very unclear way. I had to read the plot synopsis just to figure out what those moments were; I didn’t know if they were flashbacks or flash forwards or what. Again, a pretty minor issue, but it should’ve been eliminated.

The bottom line: Blood Surf is an all-around fun flick. It has a handful of fine characters, a monstrous croc that delivers, it’s funny when it’s supposed to be (the jokes aren’t forced) but it isn’t a farce, and it moves at a swift pace. If I had to pick between Crocodile and Blood Surf, I’d go with Blood Surf, but I recommend checking both out, maybe even as a double feature.