Director: Chris Kentis
Writer: Chris Kentis (Screenplay)
Starring: Blanchard Ryan, Daniel Travis
Plot: Based on the true story of two scuba divers accidentally stranded in shark infested waters after their tour boat has left.
Tagline – Who will save you?
Runtime: 1 Hour 19 Minutes
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Tense Little Thriller
Story: Open Water starts as we follow our young couple Susan (Ryan) and Daniel (Travis) who set off for a holiday in the Caribbean, filled with sun, sea and sand. One of their planned activities is a diving trip and heading off in this paradise dive we a healthy amount of people.
Their dream paradise trip takes a turn for the worse when during their dive, a miscalculation by the crew leaves the couple stranded in the ocean. The couple find themselves surrounded by different sea life, starting with jellyfish, but soon turns into hungry sharks, how long can they survive this.
Thoughts on Open Water
Characters – Susan and Daniel are just your everyday couple looking for a vacation, they have the same arguments and making up moments as you would imagine, even after being left stranded in the ocean, they try to remain calm using their knowledge of documentaries to survive. We must follow them for most of the film, so you will have to get used to their characters.
Performances – Daniel and Blanchard do a good job holding our attention through the film, they must work and not being given the whole over panicking idea does help with their performances.
Story – The story keeps everything simple, a couple head off on a diving trip only to be left behind in the open ocean, we follow as we see if they can survive as they wait for rescue with sharks starting to sense an easy meal. This does everything it needs to with the story, we don’t need to get overly invested in the supporting characters and just focus on the hopelessness the main characters must be feeling.
Adventure/Horror – The adventure takes our characters into the open ocean, the horror comes from being left there waiting for rescue, it is simple but effective.
Settings – The setting is in the title, we have the couple in the middle of the ocean, no clue of direction which adds to the tension being felt through the film.
Scene of the Movie – The first shark appearance.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – the reckless counting system.
Final Thoughts – This is a good thriller, it makes something people could be doing a leisure into a terrifying experience as the couple don’t do anything wrong to be left, they follow the ideas to survive and are left hoping someone could rescue them.
Overall: Simple and effective.
Rating
2 replies on “Franchise Weekend – Open Water (2003)”
This movie was terrifying to me. Pretty much everyone in the US had seen the ‘Dateline’ episode about the real couple.
It must be because we don’t have any predators in the water around the UK, we never get put in the position this film offers.