About thirteen years after the Australian crocodile horror Black Water was released, director Andrew Traucki comes roaring back with a spiritual sequel. While crocodiles and alligators have been having a moment over the last two years, with Crawl and The Pool taking a chunk out of audiences, Black Water and Black Water: Abyss have more in common with 47 Meters Down and its sequel. Because as Johannes Roberts did with 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, Traucki takes us out of the mangrove trees and throws us in the dark as his protagonists must fight rising waters and worse in a claustrophobic cavern.

Like the original, Black Water: Abyss has a simple set up even as it ups the ante with more couples with secrets. Up first there’s Jen (Jessica McNamee) and Eric (Luke Mitchell). They’ve been having a rocky relationship and Jen secretly expects that Eric is cheating on her. “Sometimes I feel like he’s keeping his options open,” she confides in her friend Yolanda (Amali Golden).

Yolanda, meanwhile, is with a writer of sorts named Viktor (Benjamin Hoetjes) who does those Buzzfeed-esqe articles like “Ten Best Bars in Bucharest.” His latest exposé will be on an uncharted cave system that Eric desperately wants to explore, but he’s nervous. While his cancer is in remission, he suffers from asthma and would rather go off some place secluded with Yolanda and make up the story. Rounding out the group is Chase (Anthony J. Sharpe), Eric’s thrill-junky friend who came upon the cave shaft while (dun dun dun!) looking for a pair of missing tourists and wants to discover it with Eric.

In typical horror movie fashion, the group ignores the looming massive storm on the radar and the remains of a goat they discover in the cave just warrants an throwaway “how did that get down here?” from Yolanda. Soon they discover a water-logged cavern that seems like a deadend and while Jen thinks she spots something in the murky darkness, they can’t react because water from a busted-banked river rushes through the cave system, submerging their only exit and leaving the group trapped on rocky alcoves. Worse, Cash lost his backpack...which had his car keys. Even worse, the water is rising. Even even worse, there’s a massive crocodile that takes a chunk out of Viktor and forces the group to slip up on opposite ends of the cave.

Oh, and yeah. If you’ve seen Black Water, this shouldn’t be a surprise but Yolanda is pregnant.

It’s weird watching Black Water: Abyss so close to watching the original Black Water for Boom Howdy’s Tubi-Or-Not-Tubi article series because I can see the strengths and flaws of each more clearly. The original worked so well because it focused on a tight-knit trio of characters and spent time building their relationships and, in particular, exploring the main character’s emotional growth. The sequel fails in this regard by having the “more is more” approach to characters, but not giving them enough time to really shine. I appreciate that it wastes no time stranding the characters in a seemingly impossible situation, but for a while I literally checked the characters off by their traits.

Jen’s preoccupied with shining her flashlight with very wide eyes. Eric is the Chris Hemsworth character whose hair is impossibly coiffed even after taking off his safety helmet. Yolanda is the pregnant one. Viktor is the sickly one. And Chase is the fifth wheel adrenaline junky who’s there for a kill count (sorry...spoilers).

For the majority of the film, we just sit there with these characterizations and it’s not until some late-story revelations that any of their relationships feel interesting. And even though I found myself rolling my eyes that we had another pregnancy complication (...seriously, women can add tension without being a baby incubator), the reason for the pregnancy added an extra dimension that I wish were more fully explored. The most interesting character dynamics and friction don’t show up until we’re hurtling towards the third act climax and I wish the film had taken the first’s route of focusing on three, maybe four, characters and their relationships.

Negatives aside, Black Water: Abyss continues the equation terrifyingly established for me in The Descent and the two 47 Meters Down films:

creatures who are attracted to vibrations + complete darkness = scary.

Abyss is intense, particularly every time a character has to enter the dark, murky water and is forced to move incredibly slowly to not attract the attention of the crocodile. Every moment feels one step away from being a jump scare and this is where the film mightily succeeds. Andrew Traucki and his DP Damien Beebe wrangle every bit of tension they can from the claustrophobic location and use the Jaws approach to showing the crocodile to perfection. There’s one incredible moment of looking under the water for the murky croc that had me jumping...even though I knew it was coming.

There’s something elemental and primeval to darkness and crocodiles and its Black Water: Abyss’s greatest strength. It’s a fine movie that mixes fantastic tension-filled set pieces (and a bonkers finale that had me howling) with mundane and vaguely bland characters. Fans of Black Water will still enjoy this well-made creature feature.