The Shallows (2016) – Review

If you’d ask me to name some movies which star sharks I wouldn’t be able to name many titles. Of course there is the biggest classic in the genre: Jaws. I can still remember Open Water, in which two divers are left alone in the middle of the ocean and of course Sharknado (which I’d rather forget). From this list it is easy to conclude that there aren’t that many memorable movies with sharks in them. The Shallows tries though by comparing itself to Jaws, but should it?

Nancy (Blake Lively) has travelled to Mexico to visit the beach her mother (who has passed away) surfed when she was young. It’s an emotional journey for her, but she wants to follow in her mother’s footsteps and has brought along her surf board to enjoy the wheather and waves.

What starts out as a great day quickly changes when she decides to catch one last wave. As she makes her way back to the beach she is suddenly attacked by a shark. She manages to find a rock fairly close to the beach for safety and decides to stay there until the fish has disappeared. She quickly finds out that he doesn’t and it’s up to her to survive and reach the shore again.

 The Shallows might not be at the same level as Jaws, but it is a very exciting and suspenseful film to watch which is carried well by Lively (and a strong “supporting role” by a seagull). She manages to show the hope, despair, fear and pain her character is experiencing and the running time simply flies by. Director Jaume Collet-Serra manages to make the whole movie feels real, almost without any artificial moments. The only moment which stands out is when Nancy is swimming through some jelly fish, but if you forget about that moment The Shallows is a wonderful survival horror movie which never gets truly gruesome. In other words, a proper sharkmovie.