Dead in the Water

The movie starts with a bunch of women in a boat in trouble. Why not start with how they came to be that way. We're not invested in who they are or what they're trying to do.

A crew brings aboard a guy who is infested with some unknown parasite and causes real havoc on the all female crew ship, and they all start being killed. This film just reminded me on why I don't watch the syfy channel.

I don't know if there are crews made up of only women, but certainly this is the most original element of the film: moreover the girls are cute and nice.

That this atmosphere is destroyed by a male body could perhaps be a feminist suggestion, almost like saying "we were better off alone".

And the nocturnal atmosphere is well rendered.

But in the initial part there is a heavy ellipse (not seen when the three girls return to the ship and carry the body) and the special effects are sometimes repulsive.

Furthermore, the director interrupts too often with shots of the boat in the storm.

While this film wasn't a bad little time waster..it was lacking the buoyancy to keep it afloat...I wanted to like it more as it started to show strength by the 2nd act...but couldn't hold it above water.. It was good to see an all female cast. Decent acting for the most part considering the C list factor.

But in reality when you try to storyboard a mixture of Alien..The Thing..into an X-File-ish type of made for TV movie on a boat at sea the results will be as murky as the waters you're trying to navigate.

As our 5 female protagonists are out to sea attempting to capture illegal fishing operators they come across a man in a life raft from somewhere and assumed to be dead. They bring him aboard only to realize he isn't.

After a confrontation he is killed and they realize he has been bitten or sucked on by something. An autopsy reveals a living entity inside him which has now escaped and looking for hosts. Well...look no further!!.

At this point you could insert any one of the xenomorph scenes from Alien or the Thing into the remainder of the film..with the same results. Call it a "professional pilfering" The flow of the film was good..film stock adequate. It had good moments of suspense and the CGI was used sparingly to good effect and complemented the makeup when required.

As predictable as it is Dead in the Water is still a decent watch at a 5 fishes out of 10..but you're in this liferaft alone...

Kill me. Kill yourselves. End this.

Although the opening scene with the "Amphitrite" (a kind of fishing boat) traveling across the ocean looked really cheap in terms of "special effects", the rest of the film wasn't so bad. The ocean scene really looked as if it was a toy boat filmed in a bathtub. But besides this, don't expect extraordinary things. The acting was sometimes disappointing and felt amateurish. And the story itself is sort of "Alien" on the ocean instead of somewhere on a planet in a galaxy far, far away. Especially the fact that it's a "SyFy Original" made me shudder a bit. I like low-budget and indie films, but "SyFy" films don't excel when it comes to originality. And even though it had a real low budget feeling at certain moments, there were also a number of positive things to be found.

The most striking thing about the film is that the crew only consists of women. Maybe this fits in with the "MeToo" atmosphere of today, but a little male support on this ship would have been welcome. Even if it was just to tighten a bolt here and there, or force a steel door. But I have to admit that this club of Greenpeace militants could stand their ground. Their determination is admirable. That was noticeable during the pursuit of a fishing boat, fishing illegally in these parts of the world. The brash way Gwen (Bianca Simone Mannie) whips the old sloop across the ocean, isn't only bad for Michelle's stomach (Amy Louise Wilson), but it's also not so good for the coughing engine. The result is a failing engine while a storm front is coming their way. And a ship without a motor in the center of a storm is doomed to disappear to the seabed. And as icing on the cake, Michelle thinks she has seen a drowning man. And that man appears to be a kind of Trojan horse. Because, before they fully realize it, there's a parasitic creature that slithers over the ship through all possible escape routes.

As I said before, the movie isn't really original and borrows a lot from other well-known films such as "The Thing" or "Life". But it's mainly the film "Alien" you think about while watching certain scenes. If you know the "facehugger" phenomenon, you understand what I mean. The main problem of this film is the quality fluctuations. There are excellent special effects and next, you'll see effects that are completely worthless. And it alternates regularly. For example, I found the autopsy scene extremely successful. And the next moment the organism looks like withered seaweed that glides around and sticks to windows. But fortunately, it wasn't of the same level as those ocean waves.

The same for the acting. The seven female crew members really convinced me at certain moments. At other times it came across as implausible. Maybe it was due to the limited freedom of movement. At a certain moment, it seemed as if they were constantly running from the control cabin to the engine room. On the other hand, this limitation makes it fairly claustrophobic. It's certainly exciting enough at certain times. Such a creepy atmosphere where people know that danger can strike from every corner. So if you like movies with murderous organisms, then you will like this SyFy movie. However, don't be fooled by the film poster. It is not a huge blubbery creature like I thought from the beginning. The illustration is cleverly put together.