Fear Below

Fear Below promises a slick, high-concept twist on the shark movie-gangsters in 1940s Australia diving for gold in a bull shark-infested river-but squanders that promise with lifeless characters and limp storytelling.

Yes, the setting is cool. The idea of bull sharks lurking inland is genuinely unnerving, and the film does its homework on the science. The riverside visuals are lush, the period costumes crisp, and the setup has all the makings of a pulpy thriller. But the second the characters open their mouths, the whole thing sinks.

Hermione Corfield, Jimmy Barriakada, and Arthur Angel try to inject humanity into their roles as plucky divers with tragic backstories, but they're shackled by a script that mistakes vague trauma for personality. Their motivations are murky, their relationships undercooked, and their dialogue painfully on-the-nose. You're left counting the minutes until the next shark attack-because that's the only time the movie comes alive.

Worse still, the film seems desperate to be more than a B-movie, reaching for emotional depth it simply hasn't earned. It's like The Meg trying to cosplay as The Hurt Locker. The result is a film caught between tones: too self-serious to be fun, too shallow to be profound.

When the shark does show up, it delivers a few decent jolts-but even the action lacks inventiveness. For a film that should be dripping with tension, Fear Below is oddly inert.

It's an unfortunate truth that my expectations are automatically set very low when it comes to new shark movies, despite being a huge fan of the genre.

It gives me great pleasure to say that Fear Below is one of the better movies we've got in the last few years. Fear Below understands that a Bull Shark is scary enough just being a Bull Shark. This is where most shark movies go off the rails and the filmmakers decide to add in Kaiju-esque elements, Roaring sharks, or rubbish CGI. A rubber fin gliding through the water is sometimes enough to send a shiver down the spine.

The story is a little out there, but the actors do their jobs well for the most part and I did root for the divers, as opposed to the last 4 or 5 releases I saw where I just prayed the Shark would tear everyone on screen apart to put me out of my misery.

If it wasn't for the imminent release for Dangerous Animals which I have high hopes for, I would say 2025 has it's best shark movie already.

First things first, it's a quite enjoyable experience. Shot without long and boring scenes, not much hesitations and conflicting feelings. Well-packed pace and three-acted story. Expected, but still worthy end of the story.

Well, it somehow reminds me of 2000-s era action/adventure flicks: not much dramatic insights, but still delivered joy. That can be an advantage and disadvantage at the same time. You won't get deep characters, there's no sophisticated story: just a beginning-climax- resolution. I wanted to like characters, but they were... mildly blank? I don't really think, there will be a reason to re-watch it in the future. But still it's worth watching, when you just want some adventure fun for your Friday evening.

Fear Below is a well-produced film on a technical level, with strong cinematography, solid costume design, and impressive location choices. The visual effects are passable, though it's clear that editing is used strategically to mask a limited budget-particularly when it comes to the shark, which is rarely seen.

The performances are competent, though not standout. Reactions to life-threatening situations, especially during shark attacks, feel flat and unconvincing. The lead actress delivers a convincing British accent, but it still feels strangely forced and disconnected from the setting. Her emotional scenes, particularly when crying, come across as staged rather than authentic.

Unfortunately, the characters themselves aren't compelling enough to carry the story. The mob boss character fails to exude any real menace, and Josh McConville's portrayal of an ethnic character using a European accent feels miscast; an actor of that background would have added needed authenticity. The story lacks depth and tension-it's neither particularly scary nor engaging.

The music score is decent but ultimately forgettable. While Fear Below is competently made, it struggles with weak storytelling and flat character development. For a more impactful and emotionally engaging experience, check out The Cost, the director's previous and much stronger effort.

Fear Below" dives deep, but not in a good way. This cinematic misadventure struggles with weak direction from the get-go, betraying a clearly poor budget that haunts every frame. There are zero surprises in this predictable plot, making it a tedious watch. You barely even see the shark, which for a shark movie, is an unforgivable sin. When it does deign to appear, its size seems to fluctuate wildly - one moment it's a giant, the next it's a small, idiotic fish, completely undermining any sense of threat.

The film is riddled with stupid and flimsy solutions to its poorly constructed dilemmas, and the acting is uniformly poor. Not once do you feel any genuine emotion from the characters - no pain, no danger, no sorrow, no urgency. They're just cardboard cutouts moving through a bland, uninspired script. The villains are caricatured and unconvincing, adding another layer to the film's many failings.

Adding insult to injury, the camera work is a choppy mess, constantly employing fast cuts and hiding the action, as if ashamed of what it's trying to show. This isn't suspense; it's an attempt to mask the film's glaring inadequacies. Honestly, "Fear Below" is one of the worst films I've ever seen.