Director: Kiah Roache-Turner
Year: 2025
Country: Australia
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Sharks
Plot:
Fresh out of boot camp, a group of soldiers in the Australian army are left stranded in the ocean on their first mission aboard the wrecked debris from their sunken ship, forcing them to contend with not only the perilous conditions of war but also the man-eating shark in the waters.
Review:
For the most part, this was a fairly strong and enjoyable genre effort. Among the better elements present here is the strong and effective setup that manages to bring this one into the firing line rather quickly. The early scenes present here at the training academy, where the group gets put through basic training, present a series of internal hardships and personal rivalries as they try to get through the military instructions, setting up how they operate as a team for later on, serving the film quite nicely overall. The eventual mission later on and them getting stranded is a fantastic setpiece that works with the ingrained knowledge of the horrors of war coming full circle, where the chaos of the group getting stuck on broken, blown-up parts of the ship and collecting their busted, bleeding mates without getting caught in the crossfire. It’s all quite fun and exciting, as it gives the group enough backstory to be noticeable while also providing the group a way of getting stranded in the water.
This leads to a series of survival horror situations that take place on the water. The main setup involving the group having to gather their injured and bleeding crewmembers and pull them out of the water onto the safety of the broken piece of the ship is a fun concept that plays out in a logical manner, especially with the uncertainty of further bombing raids or vehicle explosions disrupting the situation. The quest for gathering supplies, trying to keep everything safe, and making sure that they remain safe from the shark circling their equipment as well. The longer they’re on the raft and are forced to survive against not only the shark but the conditions that they’re afflicted with stuck in the middle of a floating piece of debris while bombarded by constant sunlight and lack of dwindling materials, there’s a lot of likable factors to come here from the rest of the group hoping to use their training and skills to stay alive.
When it gets to the shark coming in to attack them, there are some likable features involved. The first sequence here involving the creature appearing out of nowhere and chomping one of the survivors by pulling him into the water and leaving him in pieces so that his mangled corpse resurfaces that makes the others think he’s gotten away only to float over and reveal the truth, starts this with a bang not just from its sudden appearance but the gruesome aftermath left behind. A later scene attacking the raft by pulling a victim into the water by their dangling cloth, and begins chomping on him, while the artistic flashback scenes of the creature shown coming for him when he comes for the kid are effective, if not entirely necessary. While the attacks are fun and brutal with plenty of graphic bloodshed, they do drop in quantity in the second act to placate more war-based survival interactions that might turn off those looking for full-on creature action, as this is the main issue with the film.
Overview: ****/5
A likable enough and overall effective killer shark film, there’s enough going on here to be quite enjoyable for what it is, while the few flaws here aren’t enough to keep it down overall. Those with an appreciation for this kind of genre fare, who enjoy killer shark films, or who don’t mind the flaws here, will have a lot to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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