Director: Jared Cohn
Year: 2020
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: Deep Blue Nightmare
Genre: Sharks
Plot:
Heading out for a photoshoot, a model and the crew travel out to a remote island in the ocean to prepare for their trip, but when a shark suddenly attacks the crew and forces them to try to retreat into rapidly-rising water the survivors must try to get to safety as the sharks continually try to get them.
Review:
For the most part, this is a serviceable and fun cheesy shark movie. One of the better elements here is the strong setup in play where the film provides a solid setup for the action to come. The main group going out for the photoshoot on an underutilized island which forces them to paddle out in kayaks by themselves is quite fun, with the professionalism displayed being quite nice which is mixed together with the fine build-up involving the shark attacks at the end of their shoot. Managing to mix together a fun combination of survival drama on the rapidly overflowing island that they’re struggling to stay afloat on with the impressive way of searching for them through their high-tech equipment to track the girls. That this comes off as thrilling as it does enables a lot of fun times as there’s enough moving this one forward without slowing it down.
As well, when that allows the film to focus on the shark attacks here this one comes off rather nicely. The initial attack of the wakeboarder is quite fun with the shark initially appearing and shown circling her setup only to then get knocked in and chomped on in grisly fashion. The later setups involving the group heading out to the island for their shoot are quite fun, while the surprise of the creature attacking them in the middle of their adventure makes for a rather fun ambush. The struggle to get away from the island features the survivors having to outwit the sharks continually coming in to check them out or getting a fun sequence of dolphins coming to the rescue and distracting the sharks so they can get to safety. As well, with the finale being a solid race to escape the sea and get to the rescue ship while the shark continually tries to get at them is a solid, suspenseful time here which all told gives this one quite a lot to like.
There isn’t much to dislike with this one but it does have some minor flaws. The main element that holds this one back is the surprisingly ill-timed heart-to-heart conversation that takes place when the girls get to the island for a sanctuary respite from the sharks. This bit of character development occurs way too late in the film to make any kind of impact and add any depth to their storylines as instead, it’s just random padding that has no business in the film. Discussing their relationship woes or how their predicament is changing their mindset just lessens the tension of them trying to survive the experience. As well, the film tends to focus way too much on cheap effects-work to denote the shark, from the stock footage of sharks swimming in the ocean to a slew of badly-rendered CGI which sticks out quite obviously for what they’re supposed to be doing. Otherwise, there isn’t a lot else wrong with this one.
Overview: ***.5/5
Featuring a fun premise and some decent shark acion throughout here, this one manages to get a lot to like that holds it up over the minor flaws that might come into play with this one. Give it a look if you’re a fan of these kinds of cheesy shark films, creature features in general, or fans of the creative crew while most others will be turned off by this type of film and should heed caution.
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