Andrew Traucki knows his way around a creature feature. With micro budgets and ostensible true stories, Traucki relishes the opportunity to take a simple tale of man versus beast and render it absolutely, thrillingly intoxicating. Few, if any contemporary filmmakers are quite as committed to their craft. In a world where pocket-sized indie productions exist as little more than springboards to larger studio fare—The Taking of Deborah Logan to Insidious: The Last Key; The Hallow to The Nun—Traucki has stuck to his guns. With the forthcoming The Reef: Stalked set to premiere on Shudder, it’s high, shark-infested time to revisit Traucki’s handheld, tooth-ridden career.
Andrew Traucki’s first outing was 2007’s Black Water, a near-infamous example of making a lot with a little. Two women and one man are stranded in a mangrove swamp that just so happens to be the territory of a ferocious, practically homicidal saltwater crocodile. Utilizing techniques that would become his bread-and-butter, Traucki mixed real footage of saltwater crocodiles with some CG work to achieve the effect of the actors occupying the same proximal space as the crocodile. It isn’t perfect, and at times, the spliced seams show, but overall, Black Water is viciously effective.
A crocodile springboard, Traucki would leverage Black Water’s cult success into his next feature The Reef. Similarly grounded in some half-truths—as any fan of “true” horror stories is likely aware—The Reef is no less of a white-knuckle thrill ride. After a boat capsizes in Indonesia, several tourists are left with no option but to tread open water in hopes of finding land. Of course, a great white shark with a grudge tracks them down, intermittently making his presence known for some effective jolts and a bit of bloodshed.
Arguably better than Black Water, I’d argue The Reef is one of the scariest shark movies since Jaws. Fulfilling on the promise of what Open Water hoped to be, it’s a dour, desolate, agoraphobic scare-fest, frightening in its nihilistic simplicity. It’s just some tourists in open water alongside a giant, man-eating shark. What it lacks in gimmick or budget, it more than makes up for with sheer terror.
The Jungle is a rare misstep for Andrew Traucki, likely accounting for the seven-year gap between it and his next feature film. In The Jungle, two brothers travel to the Indonesian jungle to track down the endangered Javan leopard. Let down by frustrating characters, little momentum, and undisciplined found footage shaky cam, The Jungle flounders. With considerably less realism than his previous fare, The Jungle is at least noteworthy for Traucki trying something new. Overall, however, it’s a movie that simply exists. There really isn’t much more to say. Sure, some of the jungle photography is stunning—and the poster is pretty cool— but there’s just not much there. In fact, it’s likely few people even saw it.
Black Water: Abyss might have been critically panned, but ignore the detractors. If you took the claustrophobia of The Descent and swirled it with the dangerous pathos of Traucki’s Black Water, you’d get Black Water: Abyss. A spiritual successor to his first film, Abyss follows a group of friends who spelunk in remote Australia. Par for the horror course, all goes well at first. Soon, however, a tropical storm hits, flooding the cave and trapping the wannabe cave-divers deep underground.
That’s frightening enough, but Traucki does what Traucki does best and throws in a giant killer crocodile for good measure. While Abyss shows Traucki following the Crawl template with a bit more spectacle and fewer smarts than earlier fare, it’s still a ridiculously fun time. Additionally, Abyss manages to wring some genuine scares from its ragtag group of divers as they contend with an inexplicably angry crocodile. No less nihilistic and effective in its relative simplicity, Abyss was a return to form for killer croc Australian imports.
Traucki is back in the game with The Reef: Stalked. Where Black Water: Abyss stretched credulity, Stalked finds him back in austere, stripped-down monster territory. Early promotional materials didn’t yield much promise, though make no mistake; The Reef: Stalked is one of the best shark movies in years. With affecting pathos, genuine scares, and Traucki’s best shark photography yet, what it lacks in bloodshed it more than makes up for with a big, grinning shark heart.
Andrew Traucki has additionally helmed a segment in The ABCs of Death, taking on the gnarly G with “G is for Gravity,” and an episode of Event Zero, an Australian miniseries about a biological attack in Sydney. Yet, for the most part, Traucki’s career has been exclusively of the creature feature variety. The forthcoming The Reef: Stalked has Traucki back where he belongs. Love him or hate him (for the record, I love his work), there’s something admirable in his commitment to a thematic lineage. Creature features have been on the decline for a while (here’s hoping Idris Elba can change that). At this point, audiences are lucky to take what they get. Luckily, Traucki is happy to deliver. With stunning photography, toothy beasts, and plenty of Australians meeting their makers, I’m happy to see him back. Three cheers for the crocs, and maybe just one more for the sharks.