Altitude, on DVD and download, available now

Five friends exploring a remote cave system in Northern Australia find themselves threatened by a hungry crocodile.

Get me a sequel to a popular crocodile movie, and make its snappy! Or not. Andrew Traucki follows up his 2007 crocodile hit Black Water 13 years later, and it really wasn’t worth the wait. It’s not as inventive as either the original or his shark fest The Reef, descending into a formulaic ‘man vs nature’ movie as each victim is picked off.

The cast of unknowns (to my Brit eyes anyway) try out some spelunking and then find themselves trapped by rising waters and a blocked exit. This is the domain of a giant croc – somehow they miss the opportunity to call it Crocodile Rock! – and it’s not long before it’s snapping away at their torsos. As last year’s alligator movie Crawl proved, there’s still life in the gator/croc genre provided there’s a new USP or at least some well-crafted tension. Sadly neither apply here.

The characters are burdened with so much back story and baggage when really they’re just crocodile chow, and we don’t really develop any affinity or sympathy towards them. A soap opera twist towards the end is just ridiculous. As an asthmatic, my greatest anxiety was when one character threw an inhaler across the water to her fellow captive – I could feel my lungs tightening in anticipation of doom.

Verdict: Just uninspired – stick to the original Black Water rather than wasting your time with this by-the-numbers rehash. It’s not abyss-mal, just redundant. 4/10

Nick Joy