Kakadu National Park. One of Australia's great national wonders. A place where beauty and danger coexist. A place to explore only for those who are well prepared. But there's no amount of preparation that can save those who encounter the predator lurking in its deepest, wildest depths. For years, tourists have been reported missing there, their families given explanations that never quite fit. When a new wave of disappearances is reported in the swampland region, a mercenary team is sent in covertly to uncover the truth.
Meanwhile, Kate and Rob—documentary makers and creators of the wildly popular Cryptozoologist Keepers website—receive a report of a mysterious creature seen in the same remote location and decide to investigate. What the mercenary squad discovers, and what Kate and Rob capture on film, may very well challenge everything humanity believes about the natural world.
For the most part, this was a really strong and likable effort. The effective storyline offers two competing plots in the form of a series of strange animal attacks taking place in the remote Australian wilderness that requires a special covert team to go trace the creature and stop it from attacking others, before turning into a series of adventures following the cryptid enthusiasts trying to track it down themselves. There's a lot to like here with how this is structured, involving the different stories coming together, focusing the first half of this one on the series of attacks taking place and getting to know the various members of the team while undergoing a series of typically engaging series of interactions between the team members that help to make them more relatable.
The creature itself is also quite fun, using some genuine bits of folklore about its history and backstory in a unique location, which makes everything feel quite enjoyable. This one develops a series of encounters that are really likable, with the abilities of the creature brought up to engage in several solid sequences of the team getting wiped out that result in some intriguing setpieces full of solid gore in its kills. The descriptive parts of the park and the interactions that take place are light and breezy enough to get a clear idea of what's going on, as it generates the kind of atmospheric touch that works incredibly well here, even though the main issue here is that the pacing is a bit off at times, with some parts dragging along a bit in the first part. The mercenary team is fine to follow along with and get to know, but parts of this are pretty slow-going, getting through the interactions on display, which can be a bit long for something of this type of novella-style length. Either way, this is not much of a detriment to this in the slightest.
4.5/5
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