The Shallows: Movie Review

Director Jaume Collet-Serra is very hit-and-miss. In 2005 he helmed the kick-ass horror remake, “House of Wax”. His horror follow-up, “Orphan” however was a pretty weak offering. In 2011 he teamed up with Liam Neeson for the idiotic but enjoyable “Unknown”. Then in 2014 he paired up with Neeson again in “Non-Stop”, which was essentially “Taken” on a plane and it was pretty awful, and his third Neeson pairing “Run All Night” in 2015 was just as bad. Although I consider the filmmaker’s latest, “The Shallows” to be his best film since “House of Wax”, it doesn’t mean that I didn’t find it incredibly stupid.

Let me first say, I really enjoy a solid killer shark movie. I am not talking about ones in a tornado. I am talking about intense killer shark movies. “Jaws 1 and 2”, “Deep Blue Sea”, “Open Water”. These are all well made fun and/or intense flicks. “The Shallows” had the potential to be something quite good and star Blake Lively gives a really great performance as a woman stranded on a rock, just trying to survive the massive shark circling her. In one scene, right after her initial attack, her character Nancy, swims over to the closest thing she can climb on to. That just so happens to be a floating whale carcass and as she climbs it, her fingers impale the animals skin. It is pretty damn gross, but also something I have never seen before.

From that point on, the movie delves into stupidity, but still manages to deliver thrilling moments. One issue that I had was that the shark was about the size of a boat, yet when it bit into her leg, the bite didn’t seem all that big. However, her attempt to stop the bleeding was pretty realistic. Lively’s performance helps sell much of what’s happening on screen. The look of terror in her face as she sees someone being torn apart by the shark is great, even though we do not see the attack ourselves. We do however see the aftermath.

The final act in “The Shallows” is just balls-to-the-wall dumb, but I would be lying if I said it wasn’t fun. The audience cheered when the shark got its’ just desserts and even I had a smile on my face. “The Shallows” suffers from major flaws, including some bad shark CGI work. However fans of killer shark flicks might find some enjoyment with this one.

By: Marc Ferman