Release Date: 2010
Rating: * * *
By John Engell October 3, 2012
The shark movie; a niche in the horror genre characterized by a classic. There hasn’t been a shark movie released in the wake of Stephen Spielberg’s “Jaws,” that has survived the inevitable and unfair comparison to that film. To make a serious shark movie is an unenviable undertaking. By their very nature they are condemned as inferior copycats. In 2004 “Open Water” scored well with the critics earning favorable reviews from many mainstream publications, even receiving “Two Thumbs Up!” from Ebert and Roeper. Many moviegoers however, smelt blood in the water and tore the film apart. “Open Water” currently owns a pedestrian 2.7 star user rating out of a possible 5 stars, on Amazon.com.
“The Reef” however, made much less of a wave. In fact I was unaware of its existence until I went on a “Jaws” kick recently, which led me to Barnes and Noble to purchase its sequel and to Google to search for similar shark movies. It’s a foreign film, shot on location in the waters off Australia, with homegrown actors. “Open Water” looked like an inexpensive documentary (shark snuff if you will). “The Reef” maintains that voyeuristic perspective, but (through excellent editing) gives the viewer the rather uncomfortable feeling of being one of the victims rather than a casual onlooker to the carnage. The cinematography is breathtakingly beautiful and the filmmaker’s decision not to use animatronics (“Jaws”) or stock shark footage (“Open Water”) makes “The Reef” feel infinitely more real. In fact the shark attacks (I don’t assume that is a spoiler. Of course there had to be at least one shark attack in a shark movie) are so real I purposely didn’t watch the dvd’s "making of" feature because I didn’t want to know how they made it look so damn good.
The set up- four friends and a sun kissed sea salt, decide to mix business with pleasure and set sail on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Our lead Luke, played by Damian Walshe-Howling (Yes, his name is awesome), has been contracted to deliver the vessel, but he has brought along his on-again off-again girlfriend Kate, her brother and his best mate Matt, and his fiancé Suzie for a bit of a holiday. But after drinking a few brews and catching some rays, their boat hits the reef and capsizes. After the group scrambles onto the boat’s severely compromised hull, they must make a dreadfully difficult decision. Either stay put on a suspect ship that may sink and let the currents drag them out into the open ocean or swim for it. Prior to the accident the group had been bathing on a small island that Luke is convinced is only 10 to 15 miles back. But the waters are shark infested, which the hired skipper/deckhand ominously points out to the ship’s petrified passengers before they take the plunge. That is really the extent of the plot. Then it's shark time.
So what is it about shark movies that make them so popular? For me it's that pure and primal fear of the unknown. I find the thought of drifting in cold, dark water that seems endless and bottomless, completely exposed and vulnerable to its killing machines, to be more terrifying than any masked serial killer. What do you think?
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