Sorry, Josie. But it happens again.
This review contains heavy spoilers!
I saw this movie in theaters when it first came out in 2019, and certain scenes have stuck with me for almost five years now. I was curious to see if it held up on a second watch.
It absolutely did. Man, I love it when I find an actually scary shark movie to review.
The basic premise is fairly simple. A group of four teenage girls decide to go cave diving into some Mayan ruins in Mexico. While there, they encounter strange and terrifying wildlife, including massive great white sharks that have evolved to be completely blind. Also, there's a cave-in. And they're running out of air. Have I mentioned that there is more than one shark?
So yeah, just the setting is nightmare-inducing. I could never scuba dive specifically because I would be scared of running out of air. Cave diving just makes it so much worse. And yet, there's also a real beauty to it as well. Several scenes are simply gorgeous thanks to how it plays with light and shape.
I'll call out the opening few moments in particular as we watch Mia slowly fall into the water, her backpack and notebooks landing around her. It's a ridiculous scene – she's getting bullied and shoved into a pool while the Popular Mean Girl scoffs and calls her lame – but it's very striking.
That's something of a common theme with this movie. There are parts of it that are really lame and really dumb. The dialogue isn't going to win any awards, and there's more plot holes and logical inconsistencies than a shark can swim through. But it was really easy to not care about any of that. Not when it was doing so many other things so well.
Like making me immediately buy into the relationship between the four girls. I genuinely liked and got invested into all of them, but especially Mia and Sasha, our step-sister protagonists. I loved how their bond developed. It wasn't a complicated arc, but still a satisfying one. By the end, I was on the edge of my seat rooting for both of them to make it out alive.
Alexa pulled on my heartstrings, though, and her death was the one that's stuck with me for five years. Getting attacked by a shark is a fairly easy death to watch. By its very nature, it's quick. Alexa didn't get that. She drowned, and we watched her drown, and it was absolutely horrifying to see the desperation on her face. She didn't deserve it. At least Nicole was dumb and knocked over the pillar. Alexa did everything right. It was a gut punch, and I mean that in the best way possible. It's those kinds of deaths that I almost hope for in a good horror movie. I like the ones that stick with me.
And I love it when a movie can surprise me too. Especially after watching so many shark movies this summer, you learn the general cadence of it. You know where in the movie the next attack will come. So the fact that this pulled off the best jump scare kill since Deep Blue Sea made me flinch and then grin.
They do have a lot of jump scares, complete with what my subtitles called "Loud Jump Scare Sound." I can verify that they are indeed very loud. I actually had to turn my TV down a bit because it kept disturbing my parents' dogs. Luckily, they also balance it out with sharks silently gliding in the background. You know that they're there, just out of sight. You know that a jump scare is coming. Just not when or from what direction. There's an excellent use of tension throughout the movie that I can't help but adore.
The CGI is... not great, but it isn't distractingly bad either. The last ten minutes are utterly ridiculous, but they also actually show realistic damage from a shark bite. Movies never show realistic damage from shark bites, so the fact that they did here was just incredibly satisfying. No tiny scratches here! We got actual lacerations in the shape of a semicircle! I got far too excited about this!
Oh, I love this movie.
Random Thoughts
Note for anyone sensitive to flashing lights: there are several, fairly long sequences that are only lit by red strobe light. They're very pretty, but even I had to look away because it got a little bit too much.
Technically, this is the sequel to the movie 47 Meters Down. It's not related to it in any way beyond the basic 'trapped underwater while diving with sharks.' I'm reviewing this one and not the first because I make the rules and I like this movie more.
47 Meters Down is pretty good, though. They're also making a third movie. Filming will take place this fall.
This was the film debut of Sistine Stallone and Corinne Foxx, daughters of Sylvester Stallone and Jamie Foxx respectively.
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An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally manages to put words together in a coherent and pleasing manner.
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