From the Depths

This week, we’re something a little bit different. Don’t worry! It’s still a shark attack movie. It’s just one focused on what happens after someone is attacked... with a little bit of An American Werewolf in London thrown in.

We follow Liz, the sole survivor of a shark attack that killed her sister and boyfriend a year ago. She’s understandably incredibly traumatized. She barely leaves the house, appears to be unemployed, and can’t sleep without horrific nightmares. Nightmares that then turn into hallucinations.

It’s solidly into psychological thriller territory as opposed to the normal slasher-esque fare. It also makes for a slower paced movie. We never leave Liz’s POV, and the camera doesn’t give her much space either. Even when she leaves her house to go to one of the worst therapists ever, we stay tightly on her. It’s a rather claustrophobic effect.

There aren’t any big action set pieces that occur every so often to break it up, either. Most of the runtime is just Liz sitting and talking with different characters and the occasional shark hallucination thrown in.

I actually really enjoyed the hallucinations. The effects are serviceable, and because we’re in a house as opposed to on the water, it helps to make them more unexpected. I mean, turning around and seeing a massive shark charging at you up the hallway is an excellent jump scare.

When everything really kicks into gear, though, is when Liz’s deceased sister and boyfriend show up. Again, it’s very An American Werewolf in London, complete with them slowly rotting as the movie goes on. Angelica Briones is largely fine as our lead, but she really comes to life when acting with Marissa Godinez.

Godinez in particular seems like she’s having the most fun out of everyone with her depiction of Payton. She and Liz really do feel like sisters whose relationship was never quite as good as they thought that it was. It’s a very specific kind of dynamic. If you had asked either of them to describe their relationship, I’m sure that they would have said that it was very close and that they loved each other and all of that good stuff that you expect. But look slightly deeper, and there’s this surprisingly intense undercurrent of distaste.

It makes Payton an unpredictable figure. Is she really just a hallucination? Is she a benevolent spirit looking out for her sister? Or is she far more malevolent and petty? I wish that we spent a lot more time with her as opposed to listening to Liz’s therapist ask her if she thinks that the shark doesn’t want Liz to be intimate with her girlfriend.

Yeah, she’s no Dr. Linda.

I won’t spoil the final twist of the movie, but I really didn’t like it. It was foreshadowed well enough that it didn’t completely come out of nowhere, but it was still incredibly abrupt. The actual reveal happens in the last forty seconds, and there’s no room to let it linger and actually feel earned as opposed to just a slap in the face. It’s a shame, because I was rather enjoying it up until that point.

I wouldn’t put From the Depths on any of my “Best Of” lists, but it’s pretty solidly middle of the pack in terms of movies I’ve reviewed this summer.

Random Thoughts

I always appreciate an explicitly bisexual lead.

They don't name the shark species, but it looks like another great white.

I also really liked how Liz assumes that more than one shark was involved in the attack, since that made more sense than just one attacking multiple people within 30 seconds.

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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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