It’s been a long time since we last saw a credible animal attack survival film that had as much style as substance, but The Shallows looks set to breath new life into the genre with its stranded surfer girl premise. It’s hard to talk about a film with a great white shark attack without mentioning Jaws and it’s inevitably an inspirational reference for the drama/thriller, but this is the paired down, real world development of the genre with impressive cinematography and a knife edge setup.
Where Open Water had a Blair Witch Project shaky cam style and The Reef had a naturally indie look and feel, but in The Shallows the great white shark attack movie takes a dive into the gloss of crystal clean shot construction and high definition. However, from the look of the trailer below, it would appear to have still managed to capture the essence of the illusive underwater killer premise to deliver as much tension as it does impressive visuals.
Release date
The survival film has been scheduled for a UK release date of Friday the 12th August 2016, following on from its much-earlier arrival on the big screen in the US on the 24th June 2016. The biggest movie out in the UK on the same weekend is the Disney remake of Pete’s Dragon, so it should have the run of the box office for the more grown up portion of cinema goers.
Story
When medical student Nancy sets out on a surf trek to a secluded beach hideaway she gets attacked by a great white shark. Leaving her with a wounded leg and witnessing the death of two other loners out in the shallow coastal waters, she must come up with a way to make it to safety.
Though she’s only a couple hundred yards from the shore, the distance is too far to make it out alive and so she’s forced to remain on the rock she managed to haul herself up on after the initial attack. However, with darkness approaching and the need to get her leg treated, she’s forced to use all of her limited resources to formulate a new escape plan in a dangerous cat and mouse trial of nature.
Cast
As you can probably expect with the closed loop situation at the centre of the story, the cast is relatively small with Blake Lively (The Age Of Adeline) taking the lead role of Nancy Adams. The rest of the cast includes Óscar Jaenada, Brett Cullen and Sedona Legg.
Production
Jaume Collet-Serra (Run All Night) has directed the film with Lynn Harris and Matti Leshem producing. The screenplay has been written by Anthony Jaswinski with Doug Merrifield and Jaume Collet-Serra as the executive producers.
First impressions
The Shallows looks like a taught survival thriller that borders on the horror side of the equation with such a sinister situation for Nancy to face off against. The trailer looks very cool and reviews following its release in the US have been fairly positive, so this could be one to add to your summer watch list.
The visual clarity brings the scenario to startling life, especially the scene with the great white shark bursting out of the water to surprise strike another surfer. The fact that it all builds up to a dark, nightfall ending adds to the nerve jangling experience, so we’ll be surprised if this doesn’t pick up decent audience volumes when it arrives in the UK later in 2016.
