Discover how one man uses sharks to fulfill his twisted fantasies.
By: Amanda Musto
Shark movies have been around since the 30’s, having portrayed sharks as rogue maneaters, but screenwriter Nick Lepard flipped that narrative for a new one — sharks are just victims of Pavlovian conditioning.
I first saw the trailer for this movie on social media about a month ago and my interest was instantly peaked. With horror being my favorite genre and sharks my favorite animal, there was no question I would be at the theater opening weekend. Sharks and serial killers? Sign me up.
My favorite aspect of this film is how it stands out from other films in the shark / horror genre. The sharks in this film are not portrayed as villains like usual, but instead are pawns for a sadistic sociopath. Using sharks to torture and kill victims while recording the ordeal, describing it as ‘the greatest show on earth’ is deranged and twisted, which makes for a perfect horror film. I haven’t seen this concept done before, and I found the idea of boat captain Bruce Tucker, played by Jai Courtney (Divergent, Suicide Squad), being a killer who technically doesn’t get his hands dirty, interesting.
Tucker brought up the issue of sharks associating boats with food, due to cage diving boats chumming the waters, leading sharks to view humans as dinner served on a silver platter. I thought this was a major point that made this movie different from other shark films because it showed that sharks are highly misunderstood and aren’t purposely attacking humans.
The high level of suspense had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I had no clue what would happen next and wondered the whole time if Zephyr, played by Hassie Harrison (Tacoma FD), would be the sharks’ next meal. I rooted for her to survive the whole time and wanted her to kick Tucker’s ass. The film did a good job to build suspense while also having a low level of predictability.
In between all the death and fear, there were a few tender moments that made you feel emotional for the characters. I almost shed a tear early on in the film for sweet Heather, who just wanted her mom. Honestly the acting was great from all actors, doing a great job to make you feel so many different emotions for their characters the whole film.
I found the whole movie to be great except for the ending. I half enjoyed it and half hated it, having enjoyed the irony in the sharks biting the hand that feeds them, but the abruptness of the ending kept it from being a perfect film for me. Because of the ending issues, it loses only half a star and I give it a 4.5/5.
