The Shallows: Gefahr aus der Tiefe

The Shallows knows exactly what it is, and that's the best praise I can give it. It's barely 90 minutes long, has a small cast, and only one location. Its only purpose is to give you a thrill-ride during that time; an adrenaline rush based on an ubiquitous fear among humans: being stranded in the ocean with a shark. However as the title suggests, this doesn't take place in the middle of the ocean. This woman is stranded only a couple hundred yards from the shore, close enough to potentially shout for help. What The Shallows does so well is establish this sense of isolation and hopelessness for our main character, and her situation of being so close yet so far from safety.

Blake Lively is great in this role. It's mostly a reactionary role - not much dialogue aside from some early establishing conversations to develop her character. For the majority of the film Lively is terrified and fighting for survival against a deadly shark. This thing is huge, like the Jaws' shark's father huge. And it's interesting to see how she follows its patterns and observes its behavior, allowing her to act accordingly without being trapped. There are some far-fetched scenes, sure, but Jaws had them as well and it's hailed as a classic. Now I'm not saying The Shallows is as good a movie as Jaws, because it certainly isn't. But again, the movie knows what it is, and as a short shark thriller appealing solely to our primal fear, it gets the job done and then some.

Now, it has its faults. The electronic music during the surfing scenes was immediately off-putting, and there are some slo-mo shots that definitely did not deserve to be in slo-mo. But the directing as a whole is well done - gorgeous sweeping shots of the open ocean, the slow build up before the initial attack, showing the shark only when it's most effective. The writing is clever and practical, relatable to the point that you feel for this character's predicament, and the acting as I said is top notch. The Shallows doesn't break any new ground, but it does exactly what it sets out to do - give the audience yet another reason to avoid the beach.

The movie is very particular in setting up perimeters and rules. And making it as believable as possible, that in a modern time like this, someone would not be able to call for help (apart from the usual "no service" kind of cheat other movies do when it comes to Cell Phones). And if you buy into it, it works.

There's also the question why Livelys character goes there in the first place. Well even that is explained, so there is no doubt about motive too. What never is explained though, is not where the Shark came from or why it got there, but how it's possible that it's so bloodthirsty! We're talking Jason Vorhees or any other Slasher movie kind of mad. Maybe even more mad than that.

And while you could easily go, well it's a movie, it kind of breaks it's own rules there. Because everything seems logical (explaining mentioned), even the character and her ability to deal with (graphic) wounds ... but not the shark, who is really a monster if you come to think of it. But if you don't care about internal logic, like the view (no pun intended) and the thrill of it, you will have a good (scary) time watching this!

Blake Lively plays Nancy, a medical student taking time off from her studies and plans to go to a secluded beach in Mexico with a pal for some surfing. Let down by her friend she heads alone hoping for a period of self reflection as this was the beach her now deceased mother once visited when she was young.

While she is surfing alone she is attacked by a large shark. Injured, bleeding she is stranded on a rock. She looks for help but no one is about, her medical skills are used to patch herself up the best she can and she realises that she is only safe on the rock as it is low tide. As the tide rises, she needs to get to safety, but the shark is circling round. Nancy needs to somehow outwit the shark.

This is really a low budget B movie. The CGI is ordinary and the story is preposterous. Nancy is in a remote location but she gets excellent wifi and a mobile phone signal.

The shark is of course demented, hell bent in gobbling up Nancy when their are other food sources about (maybe he saw her performance in Savages!)

The Shallows (2016)

*** (out of 4)

Nancy (Blake Lively) heads to a secluded beach in Mexico that her mother had visited years earlier. The plan is to surf and reflect on her life but soon she's fighting for it when she's attacked by a Great White shark.

THE SHALLOWS has been called the best shark movie since JAWS and it's easy to see why so many people are falling in love with it. Director Jaume Collet-Serra has certainly created one of the more memorable thrillers of the past few years and while there's a lot of scenes with the shark the director also manages to build up suspense without seeing it. This is certainly a movie where the director has full control of the experience and he really delivers a nice little gem.

The greatest thing about the movie is certainly it's suspense factor. Going into the movie you already know that there's a shark that is going to attack so this immediately gets you ready for what's to come. What works so well is the fact that everything goes as you'd expect but at the thirty minute mark things take a bigger turn and we get several more twists and surprises. I'm obviously not going to ruin them here but there's no doubt that there are several scenes that will have your stomach in a knot as you wait to see where the next attack is going to come from.

The director delivers all sorts of great excitement and there's no doubt that the shark attacks are wonderfully done. What's so great about them is that the shark looks 100% real and there's never any feeling that you're watching a CGI shark like DEEP BLUE SEA or some other crap movie you'd see on SyFy. The movie also works whenever the shark isn't attacking because the director builds up such a relationship between the viewer and the Nancy character that you can't help but feel suspense even when the shark isn't there.

Lively turns in a very good performance as she perfectly hits on several emotional marks. Oscar Jaenada also deserves a lot of credit for the few scenes that he is in. There are a few flaws here and there, including a horrible ending but there's no question that THE SHALLOWS delivers the goods.

Entertaining 'shark' movie that adds a modern twist to the Jaws films of the 1970s and 80s. The location is supposed to be some surfers paradise beach in Mexico (in reality filmed in Australia) where a lone surfer Nancy (Blake Lively) ends up stranded a mere 200m from the safety of the beach by an angry Carcharadon carcharias (Great White Shark).

Nancy heavily losing blood from a deep leg wound ends up finding solace on a rock. To add to the screenplay she is befriended by a seagull she names Steven. Do you get the joke Steven Seagull? The shark effects are all cleverly added by CGI which of course Steven Spielberg didn't have available at the time of shooting Jaws in 1975. I suppose there is little manoeuvre for the screenplay. Don't get me wrong an entertaining watch but just highlights for me how good Jaws was.