Blood in the Water (2022) by Dominic Nutter


Director: Dominic Nutter
Year: 2022
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Sharks

Plot:
After awakening from being abducted, a woman joins others in a special pool where they're forced to reveal secrets they all hold which binds them together that ends up requiring them to be fed to a killer shark if they fail the game, requiring them to work together to find out how to get away.

Review:

Overall, this was a rather interesting if flawed genre effort. Among the more enjoyable features here is the film's initial concept of integrating sharks into a highly unusual setup. The melding together of the genres by forcing a group of strangers chained together in one location who are forced to recall details of a crime that tied them together with the shark showing up to kill them off adds a rather dynamic flair to be had here. This is all given a bit more seriousness than it really needs with the clandestine abductions showing off the purposes of the group being targeted and how it all ties together which at the least is interesting.

That gives the film a decent setup to hang incredibly cheesy genre attacks on. The premise of this one allows for the rather goofy nature of the struggling victim being overwhelmed and dragged underwater in a swarm of activity that is far more effective than it should be given the use of the prosthetic shark head for the attacks. Their infrequent placement comes off quite nicely to help pump up the running time outside of the arguments that emerge even though that highlights the utterly unimpressive shark prop that gives itself away every chance it can which isn't too big of a deal but is all that holds this one up.

There are some big flaws here that hold this one down. The main issue here is the utterly unbelievable and unrealistic scenario which strains credibility to the point of agony. The whole idea of managing to capture a Great White Shark and sneak it into an indoor swimming pool that would exist in a random backyard strains incredulity to a breaking point rarely seen in the genre as this premise is so hard to logically work out and believe that the film is nearly doomed from the start. The pacing is way too uneven with too many scenes of them arguing with each other in between the shark attacks that become dull after a while, and alongside the general cheapness of everything leaves this one a highly underwhelming feature.


Overview: *.5/5
A generally underwhelming if watchable cheesy shark movie, this one will absolutely live or die with viewers based solely on the strength of how the flaws resonate which will be a deal-breaking aspect. Viewers who are unconcerned with those factors and just looking for a cheesy killer shark film will like it yet not go much higher on it but most others will render far harsher punishment here due to the flaws.

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