“47 Metres Down” (2017)
Decades ago a certain man made a film about sharks which defines the genre to this day. So much so that it’s impossible to watch a shark movie without comparing it to that classic, flawless piece of filmmaking. That man was, of course, Renny Harlin and the film was Deep Blue Sea.
Putting aside all comparisons, this story of two sisters whose cage dive goes disastrously wrong and leaves them trapped at the bottom of a shark infested sea with limited, and rapidly decreasing, air actually works really well. It’s well played by Mandy Moore and “that one from the telly whose name I can’t remember right now”. A bearded Matthew Modine shows up for a bit and does his best with what he’s given.
The sharks are superbly rendered cg (not that I’d ever claim to be an expert on such things but they look very realistic!) and although they are of the Hollywood “HUMANS, I KILL YOU BECAUSE NOM NOM!” variety they aren’t overused and feel like a real threat.
Way better than I was expecting and a fun way to spend a Saturday night in a switch-off-yer-brain kind of way.
Whether or not you appreciate the story choices made in the last act will no doubt have a big impact of your opinion of the film because it’s, yeah, it’s a bit of a slap in the face. Personally, I liked how it went because I really wasn’t expecting things to turn out the way they did. A claustrophobic, tense and scary 80-odd minutes.
I give it 7.5 chum buckets out of 10.