The Shallows (2016) Review!!!

Synopsis – A mere 200 yards from shore, surfer Nancy is attacked by a great white shark, with her short journey to safety becoming the ultimate contest of wills.

My Take – I remember being instantly hooked on when the 1st teaser of this shark thriller came out. Something about the film just got me excited, maybe it was because of the fact there hasn’t been a quality horror/thriller film involving a shark in quite some time or maybe just because its starred Blake Lively (Ryan Reynolds you lucky SOB), someone who I have been crushing on since her Gossip Girl (The CW show) days. What’s interesting is that out of the hundreds of shark movies that have been made for television and the occasional Hollywood produced features, the only genuinely good one happens to be the Steven Spielberg classic Jaws and to some extend Open Water. After the remarkable success of Steven Spielberg‘s Jaws back in the mid-70s, there led a long string of shark flicks, both in the theatrical and Made-For-TV category, tried to emulate the arresting value of the summer masterpiece. Deep Blue Sea, Shark Night, Piranha, Shark Attack, Sharknado film series, and the list goes on. None of which managed to pull to the genre to the surface, or even reach remotely close to the heights of Jaws (not the sequels). Luckily for us director Jaume Collet-Serra (Non-Stop, Run All Night) surprises us with a spine-chilling shark thriller that shows though the genre may have sunk below the surface, it can still make an intense human vs nature film hence proving Hollywood can still make a quality shark film if it really wants to.

The catch here is, while most shark based films, try to imitate Jaws (with bad production & bad actors) or act smart by providing a scientific twist for the attacks, this film goes back to the basics – a simple survival tale. The story follows Nancy Adams (Blake Lively), who after the devastating experience of watching her mother succumb to cancer, withdraws from medical school and retreats to a secret stretch of beach in Mexico which her mother had visited during her pregnancy. With her family back in Texas and her friend still at the hotel, she makes her surfing afternoon on her own. The majority of her day consisted of hitting the waves, calling her sister, and trying to converse with two random Spanish speaking surfers. Once alone, as she is riding the crest of a wave, a Great White shark smashes into her and knocks her off her surfboard. The shark takes a bite of her leg and tries to pull her down, but Nancy makes it to a rock formation where she makes a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. The distance to the beach is too far to swim without risking another attack and as the other surfers have gone home, she’s stuck there with a hurt seagull as her only companion. With time running out as the tides begin to lower down, Nancy has to use her wits to outsmart the shark and save herself. This film is a perfect example of how to make a perfectly competent and thrilling shark movie from the moment the camera opens onto the beautiful Mexican beaches to the very end once the last of the credits has rolled. There is calm before the storm in moments where Lively‘s Nancy befriends a seagull, tends to her wounds, talks to herself, the night time shots are particularly eerie as she is silently stalked. Inevitably each chance of rescue is thwarted by the tenacious killer. With a handful of shark attacks littered throughout there’s enough moments to maintain interest. Dehydrated, no food and losing blood writer Anthony Jaswinski‘s offers part an endurance test story as well as a creature feature. As Nancy goes from salvation points, through the salt water, rock to rock, there’s plenty of tension as she times her swims in an attempt to out maneuver the shark. The slick editing and Jaswinski‘s story brings the film full circle playing against expectations and with sleight of hand you’re into the unknown, with Nancy’s fate up for grabs in the closing act where she faces off with the extremely aggressive predator. With high- tides, jelly fish stings, storms closing in, flare guns, director Collet- Serra keeps the thrills coming until the end. Talking about a tight-spot, the film never wears out its welcome, as director Jaume Collet-Serra observes all the standard conventions of vintage suspense thrillers. He corner our valiant heroine in one frightening predicament after another, and she must rely on her own savvy and stamina. Occasionally, when Nancy cannot outwit her adversary, he creates obstacles that the shark cannot overcome in its ravenous lust to make her into mincemeat. At one point, a steel hook embedded in its jaw gets snagged on a buoy, and the Great White wallows turbulently before it dislodges itself and renews its attack. At other times, the shark deals with marine life such as a school of jelly fish and the craggy underwater terrain that thwarts its momentum. The irony is that our heroine is–as the title indicates– in shallow waters instead of far out in the briny blue deep. The Great White shark appears sufficiently menacing, and computer-generated visual effects are top-notch. The predator’s initial appearance through a wave is ominously dramatic.

This may be a simple film, but it takes it’s simplicity to terrifying advantages and creates an open yet claustrophobic thriller. It understands that what we don’t see is what scares us the most. Whenever we don’t see the shark, we get to know a lot about Nancy and how she tries to use her studies of medicine and surfing to see if she can strategize around this animal. When we do catch a glimpse, they make sure that the shark is big, menacing, and ready for the hunt on it’s human. If you’ve seen the trailer, the scene where the Great White lurches above the waves to gobble a surfer is sensational stuff. The whale carcass that our heroine initially takes refuge on until the shark forces her to abandon it looks pretty realistic, too. The shift into tone and atmosphere from harmony to heartache for Nancy is very palatable, too. There are those who will say that the shark would have feasted on the whale corpse and ignored the people. There are those who will observe that a shark really doesn’t go on a killing spree. In the film’s defense, you have to have something to keep the film interesting and build tension for the film to work well. The film plays like a one-man show or in this case, a one-woman show. The good news is that the very under rated Blake Lively is an actress that can carry an entire movie. She might be drop dead gorgeous, but you can capture her thoughts straight through her eyes, even as the sun glares. Blake Lively has the charisma, vulnerability, and resourcefulness that I believe is ideal in the heroines of this genre of film; bold and plucky, she manages to keep a smile on her face (much of the time), with an attitude that seems to say, “gimme your best shot.” It is riveting to watch her scramble to stay alive, determined not to lose to what appears to be the very hand of Fate itself. She makes you root for her – which brings more tension into the project. The film did a nice job showing her “logically” figure out ways to help herself survive. Aside from Blake Lively, the film features only seven actors, six relatively unknown males and one female confined to supporting roles, all playing their parts well as required. On the whole, ‘The Shallows’ is the biggest surprise of the year, with an engrossing script, gripping tension, and an ambitious performance by Blake Lively, this unexpected thrill ride is a film you should not miss.