THE SHALLOWS attempts to return the shark film genre to a frightening realistic scope. Recall the opening scene in Jaws where Chrissie is attacked. She's bitten and pulled under and then let go. Fear floods her system as she realizes what's happening to her. And then the shark comes back for another bite. There's no humor. Simply raw terror. The Shallows is essentially the opening scene of Jaws played out over the span of 1 hour and 26 minutes. White-knuckled terror with little room for anything else.
The Shallows is the best shark film I've seen since Jaws.
THE PLOT
Nancy recently lost her mother to cancer. To deal with her grief she sets out on her own following in her mother's footsteps from when she was Nancy's age. This pilgrimage takes her to a serene secluded beach away from tourists, away from vacation spots. A beach the locals call paradise. Her mother surfed off this beach years ago. Now it's Nancy's turn. After hours of surfing she notices something big floating in the water about two hundred yards out. She swims over to it and discovers it is a floating whale carcass, blood staining the water all around her. Then she feels movement in the water beneath her. Something bites into her leg and pulls her down. It lets go. In a panic Nancy swims to the surface and climbs on top of the whale carcass. Then she sees a large gray fin slicing through the water around her.
THE GOOD
The Shark. What makes or breaks these movies more often than not is the shark. Fake looking animatronics, terrible computer generated effects, and so on litter most of the shark films in existence. The shark in this film, with a few minor exceptions, looks more convincing than any other CGI shark in film. CGI effects have come a long way since Deep Blue Sea. The shark is big and mean and unrelenting. There isn't a shark in any other film as scary as this guy.
Sorry, Bruce, your movie is still the best but you've been replaced as the scariest shark.
In the real world there are urban myths about a thirty foot great white rumored to hunt off the shores of Cape Town, South Africa. Far bigger than any other recorded great white shark, this fish earned the nickname "Submarine" on account of its large size and black coloring (look it up on google if you don't believe me). I couldn't help but think of Submarine while watching the Shallows.
Survival Thriller. Where Jaws was a high sea adventure film, a neo Moby Dick in many ways, The Shallows mirrors films like THE EDGE or THE GREY. A story about a human being stranded where the environment will kill them if the man-eating predator doesn't kill them first. The character of Nancy is fighting the elements as well as the shark. She has to rely on her intelligence and resourcefulness to survive. Nancy is fighting the clock too. No food. Losing blood. And the tide is rising, slowly swallowing the tiny rock formation she is marooned on. Everything in the film is against her.
THE BAD
Bloody Tame. The gore in The Shallows is pretty insubstantial. The film is PG-13 so sadly no nudity and no gore. I don't need gore to enjoy a good horror film and this movie is almost good enough that it doesn't need it. But a staple of every shark movie is that one scene where you see the shark bite into a character, that person writhing and screaming. It's usually the most shocking moment in the film and a brutal reality check that makes your blood run cold. All the shark attacks in this film either happen off screen or at a distance. It's not necessarily a bad thing but it really is a shame given how vicious and scary the shark in this film turned out to be. Even so I still enjoyed the hell out of this movie.
THE VERDICT
Blake Lively and director Juame Collet-Serra deliver the best shark movie in decades. Less Jaws and more in the vein of a survival thriller, The Shallows is a taut suspenseful experience. Never has there been a shark on screen so vivid and realistic in appearance. Jaws made you afraid to go into the water. The Shallows reminds you why you were afraid to back into the water. Save for the limitations of being rated PG-13, this movie gives you the shark film you've been wanting to see since Jaws.
Overall Ranking: 7 out of 10
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