Clip description
Allen (Geoff Morrell) is crawling from the river, apologising for his role in an escape attempt that ended in debacle, when the crocodile sneaks up behind him at lightning speed.
Curator’s notes
Like Steven Spielberg in Jaws (1975), McLean delays the moment where the audience sees the dangerous creature for the first time until relatively late in the film – in this case, 50 minutes in. The shock for the audience is intensified by the placement of the scene – only seconds after the climax of an extremely tense and exciting action sequence where an escape attempt goes wrong and several of the party have landed in the river – just at the point when viewers are catching their breath. The croc’s snatching of Allen might be interpreted as de facto 'punishment’ for his role in the debacle.
The sequence was completed using a combination of stunt performance, animatronics from John Cox’s Creature Workshop and digital effects by Fuel International (both are Australian companies).
