The Shallows (2016)

Review

86min

Genre:      Horror, Thriller

Director:   Jaume Collet-Serra

Cast:        Blake Lively, Óscar Jaenada, Brett Cullen…and more

Writer:     Anthony Jaswinski

-Synopsis-

After being attacked by a Great White shark; a young surfer is stranded in paradise on a small rocky outcrop just a stone’s throw from a secluded beach; but her attacker and now stalker’s instinct to kill is matched by her will to survive, in what becomes a game of who blinks first in this tense survival thriller.

Having directed action/thrillers like the Liam Neeson vehicles ‘Unknown’ and ‘Run All Night’, and horrors ‘House of Wax’ and ‘Orphan’; Catalan director Jaume Collet-Serra has become quite proficient at getting audiences to grip their movie seats, and with the help of a glamorous leading lady he uses all this experience to craft this modest but striking Sony Pictures survival thriller.

In what is essentially a one-hander, if you don’t include the shark and some minor parts, Blake Lively stars as “Nancy”; a young American medical student who takes a solo surfing trip to a secluded Mexican paradise after reaching an emotional fork-in-the-road of her life, only to be thrown into a nightmare after her idyllic vacation is turned into a struggle for survival by a vengeful Great White.

It’s inevitable that any horror/thriller about a killer shark will be compared to the titan of the subgenre ‘Jaws’; but whereas Spielberg and writer Peter Benchley had the excuse of ignorance in depicting an animal as a vindictive monster over 40 years ago, Collet-Serra unashamedly casts this apex predator as the murderous beast in this classic “Man (or woman) Vs. Monster” survival story.

But ‘Jaws’ is hardly the only film that ‘The Shallows’ greatly “borrows” from; if you can picture a mix of Spielberg’s 1975 classic with several elements from 1990’s subterranean monster comedy/horror ‘Tremors’, and Robert Redford’s oceanic survival drama ‘All Is Lost’, you’ll get an sense of what this film is about… not to mention the many B-movie horrors that clearly inspired it.

Although it’s not an Indie flick by any stretch of the imagination, ‘The Shallows’ uses its relatively modest studio picture budget well, providing convincing CGI for the shark which makes it dynamic and menacing without being over-the-top. While the use of Aussie locations for the Mexican beach paradise produce some stunning nature visuals, plus some solid surfing and underwater action shots.

Let’s be honest here, aside from a “empowered” female-centric perspective on a theme we’ve seen time and again in any number of B-movies, big and small; ‘The Shallows’ offers very little that’s truly original. Collet-Serra cleverly re-works concepts to craft tense set pieces with strategic jump-scares and comes up with a few clever additions of his own, but there nothing new or groundbreaking for any cinephile here.

The sparse dialogue isn’t exactly inspired and the medical terminology opportunistically woven into the narrative is irritating, as is the meek attempt at infusing a family drama into Lively’s character back-story… not to mention a slightly disappointing 3rd act and underwhelming conclusion.

And let’s be real here, even if you think the flattering shots of a stunning woman throughout the film are a coincidence, you have to admit that seeing a scantily-clad Blake Lively from every conceivable angle is clearly a huge selling point of the film.

But despite all its faults, ‘The Shallows’ manages to deliver real tension throughout, with scenes that are not for the faint-hearted, but not overly gruesome or too stomach churning to put off general audiences. This is a simple, focused and well-crafted little thriller with a narrow scope, and a welcome change from most of the blockbuster fare you’ll see this summer.

The Bottom Line…

A slick studio version of many a B-movie monster survival thriller we’ve seen in the past, ‘The Shallows’ is not quite seared in out memory or without its faults; but thanks to a solid performance from a stunning leading-lady and top notch craftsmanship from Jaume Collet-Serra, it’s more than striking and gripping enough to keep you captivated for nearly 90 minutes.

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Tremors (1990)

Stalked by huge mysterious worm-like subterranean killer creatures; the residents of a small American desert town struggle to survive and escape their valley by keeping off the ground and taking the “monsters” out one-by-one in this cult-classic B-movie horror/comedy.

Directed by Ron Underwood and  Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward and Finn Carter among others.

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