The Reef (2010)

Episode 135, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Craig: Hello, and welcome to another episode of 2 Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Craig.

Todd: And I’m Todd.

Craig: And we are wrapping up our summer fun month, and, this week, I chose the film, and I recommended that we take a look at 2000 ten’s The Reef. I saw this movie years ago. I have no idea how long. Probably not too long after it came out. It was available briefly on Netflix, and that’s where I caught it. It was directed by, Andrew Trautsch, who had one feature film before this, Black Water, which I watched after I saw this film because I enjoyed this film, and I really liked them both. It’s an Australian film. You know, I I I can’t say that I’m incredibly well versed in Australian horror movies, but the ones that I’ve seen like The Loved Ones and Wolf Creek, which I know, Todd, you’re not a huge fan of.

Todd: But we’ll have to do some time. It’s it’s gonna

Craig: You’re right.

Todd: It’s required, I think.

Craig: The the ones I’ve seen, I’ve enjoyed, and and I would say the same for this one. I feel like when I recommended this, Todd, you said that you didn’t know anything about it. Is that true?

Todd: That’s a 100% accurate. I’d never even heard of it. Although with a title like The Reef, you know, it’s not, like, the most original title. Maybe I’d heard of it, but, no, I don’t I didn’t know this movie.

Craig: Yeah. It’s the title’s a little bit generic. And, frankly, you know, it’s it’s not the most unique concept in the world. It’s a shark movie. But I like shark movies. You know, of course, Jaws is kind of the penultimate, of, the big shark blockbuster movies. But this one, I I would say probably has a little bit more in common, with the film, Open Water. Yes. Yeah.

Todd: That’s what I was thinking the whole time. Yeah.

Craig: Yeah. Which was an American film, but I would argue that, this one was potentially even a little better. And I don’t know if this makes the biggest difference in the world, but it kinda made a difference to me, is the fact that all of the shark footage in this movie is actual shark footage. There, there, there aren’t, as far as I know, you know, in fact, and I’m sure we’ll talk about this, there were some times when I found it hard to believe, like, seriously? Like, are these real sharks? Because they’re right next to these people. It’s kind of what you would expect, but at the same time, I found it to be, pretty tense and and scary, and ultimately, I liked it. What did you think?

Todd: You know, I enjoyed it. I thought it was tense. I thought there was at least one moment in here which was absolutely heart wrenching. And I think the best thing I could say about this movie is it’s I think it’s a skillful piece of writing. I think it’s a skillful, piece of directing because it seems to be 100% honest. They’re they’re not it it feels to me like if people are out in the middle of the water being terrorized by sharks, this is how it would go down. This is how people would react. Nothing’s really overblown. I think the even the character development itself isn’t really that much. We kinda get to know these people, but not really well. And it’s not like they’re these different personalities being played played off of each other for dramatic effect. You know, they’re all just basically friends and relatives who go out and are on a boat, and then this bad thing happens, and they have to fend for themselves. But they’re pretty much all on the same team the whole way. It’s just them against the shark. Right. And so in one at one level, because it was so honest, I feel like it lacked a lot of the dramatic panache that you get from a lot of other movies, but that’s not necessarily a knock against the movie. There’s certainly room for movies like this. You’re not gonna be watching this movie and experiencing one twist right after another. The thing about the film is it goes pretty straightforward in the direction you imagine it would go. And the only thing that’s suspenseful about it is who’s gonna live and who’s gonna die.

Craig: Right.

Todd: Right. So, you know, I mean, it’s it’s it’s it’s a fine film. It’s not my favorite. It’s not my favorite shark movie. But, you know, it probably swim circles around, say, I don’t know, Jaws 3 d, which you say. Can’t even put them in the same ballpark. Sorry, Craig. That was just a jab at you in That’s okay.

Craig: Fair enough. Hey. We we got really positive response from that episode, so you you can jab that meal all you want.

Todd: Joss 3 d has a lot of fans out there that came out of the woodwork after that one.

Craig: That’s right. Well, yeah. You’re right. And I think that part of the reason that it doesn’t have, I don’t know, you know, like, those dramatic twists and turns that you suggested is is, because it’s it’s another one of those movies that opens up. It’s set in Australia somewhere, I believe on the great barrier reef. And it opens up with this beautiful shot, this aerial shot of the reef. And and we get the title, and then it says based on a true story. Now, you know, we see that so often, and you always have to take that with a grain of salt. You know? For example, Open Water is also based on a true story, but nobody survived in that movie. So Who knows what

Todd: happened? Yeah.

Craig: Who knows what really happened? Exactly. But the true story that this is based on actually is pretty close to what is portrayed in the movie, except for there were fewer people involved. I think, in the true story, there were only 3 people involved. But Mhmm. In both the movie and the story that it’s based on, there was a survivor. And so there was somebody, you know, and I I guess we have to take them at their word, but, there was somebody who could kind of give an account of, these events that happened. And also in this movie, the predator, is a great white shark, which, you know, is very scary. We’re all terrified of great whites because of jaws and and just because they’re, you know, so massive and scary in general. In real life, apparently, it was actually a 10 foot tiger shark. Frankly, you know, in looking stuff up about this movie, I I couldn’t find a whole lot.

Todd: No. There really wasn’t a lot.

Craig: Yeah. I know. And I and I was a little disappointed. And and when I first watched the movie, I was a little skeptical because the movie kind of hinges on the idea that these people, this group of people, who find themselves, you know, capsized in the water are really being hunted by this one shark. And in the back of my mind, I was thinking that’s stupid. You know, like like, one shark is not gonna keep hunting these same people. But according to, you know, the person who actually survived, that is what happened. Now Right. Can they say with any certainty that it was the same shark? I don’t know, but I’m willing to take their word that they believed that it was. And that’s what happens here. But I guess that’s kind of, getting ahead of ourselves. So let’s kind of set it up the way that the movie does.

Todd: Okay.

Craig: Yeah. Go for it.

Todd: No. You go ahead, Craig. You’re you’re better at this than I am. I I have a terrible memory.

Craig: I know, but I wanted to give you a shot.

Todd: We’d rather hear your voice anyway. Yeah. Or let me just say you’d rather hear your voice anyway.

Craig: You’re starting to sound like my partner. Shut up.

Todd: Okay. Alright. Go for it.

Craig: So we get the beautiful reef shot. We get the based on true events, and then we meet our main characters. And that’s another thing that I love about this movie. There are only 6 people credited in the whole movie and one of those people has like 2 lines. So

Todd: When you’re doing a podcast this is just a blessing. Right?

Craig: So really, there’s only 5 people to keep up with. First of all, we’ve got Luke. And, you know, I’ll tell you who played them even though, you know, these are all Australian actors. I don’t know any of them from anything else. But Luke is played by, Damien Walsh Howling. And, at the very beginning of the movie, he is at the airport, and he is picking up his friend, Matt, who is played by, Guyton Grantley, I think. And Matt’s girlfriend, Susie, played by Adrienne Pickering. And, they also have in tow Matt’s sister, Kate, who is played by Zoey Naylor. You can tell from the very, very beginning. You know, obviously, you know, Luke and Matt are buds. That’s great. Matt’s got this fiance. That’s great. But you can also tell that there’s something going on between Luke and Kate, Matt’s sister. Like, they they’ve clearly got some history. You can tell that right from the beginning, and that kind of gets

Todd: Because there aren’t many people in your life that you would give a sausage to. Giant sausage. Giant sausage. Did you I’m

Craig: still not really sure that I get that, Joe.

Todd: Did you find that really strange? I I

Craig: mean, I I felt like there there had to be some story behind it.

Todd: But I thought we had to get the story at some point. No. I guess we’re just supposed to let our imaginations fill in the blanks.

Craig: Yeah. She she gifts him a giant sausage, and he’s happy about it. So, you know, memories, I guess.

Todd: I guess so. Those those earlier sausage days.

Craig: Yeah. My goodness. Awkward. Alright. Anyway, Luke delivers boats for a living, which sounds like a totally awesome job. So he has this boat available and, you know, there’s some talk about, oh, we hope we’re not keeping you from anything. He’s like, oh, no. No. It’s fine. You know, I don’t have to be there for a while or whatever. So, you know, it’s not it’s not his boat, but he he delivers boats, and and so they they’re gonna go kind of on this pleasure cruise or whatever. Before they actually get on the boat, they stop, at, the bait shop on the dock, and Kate is drawn to this wall that has all of these, shark jaws. The 6th character who only has a couple of lines, Shane, he, I guess he works there.

Todd: It’s pretty impressive. Yeah. It’s a Mako, Todd, Hammerhead. That one’s a white pointer. Wow. Where’d you get these? Out there. Yeah. Yeah. Strange about the white point, though. People reckon they don’t usually come this far north. Don’t worry. What do

Craig: they say?

Todd: It’d be more like they’d die from a beast and get killed by a shark.

Craig: First of all, I’m terrible at geography, but secondly, I I don’t really know all that much about Australia except for what I hear is that pretty much everything there wants to kill you. Like they, like they have the craziest animals, the craziest insects. Like

Todd: You have no idea. It’s almost it’s completely true. I I happen to, my wife and I traveled to Australia. We went to the probably around where these guys are. You know, everybody thinks of Australia, they think of the outback. But if you go up in the northeastern part of the state of the country where the Great Barrier Reef, you know, most of the diving and good stuff up there is, it’s actually rainforest. We went on a hike once through the rainforest carrying rafts on our back to do some white water rafting. And as we were going through, the guide told us now don’t touch any plants. Like, be careful what you brush up against. I mean, we’re going I mean, you can’t avoid brushing Right. Against plants when you’re walking through the rainforest on a trail. But there is a particular plant there, and I think they call it the fire plant or something, that no kidding. If you touch its leaves or its bark, any part of its foliage, it has these microscopic, like, needles that just enter your skin effortlessly. And inside of these needles is like a nerve agent. And so you can brush up against one of these leaves and he said, you will feel likes, for example, your hand is on fire. And there’s and these will be embedded in your skin, and there’s nothing you can do about it until all of this runs its course. And he says, eventually, you’ll calm down and everything will be fine until you take a shower or you get it wet or you brush up against your own hand and then boom, it activates everything and you’re on fire again. And my wife actually went Todd, botanical garden and they had one of these plants in the botanical garden. And the entire thing, like, had all these big signs on it, and I don’t remember what it’s called, but, like, you know, fire plant, blah blah blah blah and a giant glass case around it so that nobody would touch it. Even the plants are going to kill you. Yeah.

Craig: Yeah. It’s it’s crazy. I mean, it it sounds like a great country.

Todd: Between it’s between them

Craig: and the Craig. Really cool people live there. Todd don’t go in the outback and don’t touch any of the plants or see any animals or anything. Right. Right. But anyway, this guy at the bait shop, he’s like, don’t worry about it because you’re more likely to die from a bee sting than to be killed by a shark, which I suppose statistically is true, but that doesn’t really make me less scared of sharks and more scared of bees.

Todd: I think there are, like no kidding. There are, like, 10 deaths from by shark, like, per year worldwide. It’s that low. Wow. Something like that. That’s Craig. That, but it’s it’s it’s really that low. It’s really it’s really low.

Craig: God. And it that surprises me with, you know, as stupid people are, you know, jumping in, swimming with sharks all the time, whatever. Anyway, so now we know there’s all these sharks out there or whatever. They go to board the boat and they meet Warren played by, Kieran Darcy Smith. He’s not a friend of theirs, but he works with Luke or for Luke. Like, he’s the crew on the boat. You know, he’s a nice guy. Everybody gets along with him.

Todd: Which is everybody in this. I mean, nobody has any problem with anybody. Right? No. The only Yeah. No. The only thing is, you know, the awkwardness between Kate and, and Luke, who they call Lou all the time. But but that remedies itself pretty quickly.

Craig: Right. Right. As soon as they get on the boat, they talk, you know, we find out that they have sailed the Mediterranean together, you know, for whatever reason, reasons we don’t really know. Like, I I I feel like she, you know, went off on vacation or went off to school or something, I don’t know, but she’s been away for a while. It it seems like they kinda just put their relationship on Todd, and it’s just been indefinitely on hold. Giving him a sausage to break the ice again. A giant Todd, you’re a little obsessed with this giant sauce.

Todd: I it’s the big mystery of

Craig: the movie for me. I’m sorry. This is all

Todd: I could think about while we were going through. When are we gonna hear about the sausage? Never.

Craig: I know. You you would think they would have, like, eaten it later, like, you know, beaten the shark with it or something.

Todd: Or back when they’re, like, talking about sex later on when they’re trying to pass the time, like, the story would resurface or something. Like, I thought for sure we would get a payoff.

Craig: I don’t I don’t know, but, like, if that’s some sorta, like, inside you inside joke, like, wow, Luke. Like, get it, Kate. Right.

Todd: As it stands, this is a sausage without a payoff, I’m afraid.

Craig: Oh, if I had a quarter for every time. But anyway, so they they talk and, you know, like, they’re giving each other eyes. You know, like, these people, they’re all very good looking, but not, you know, like, so good looking that you couldn’t believe that they were real people, but, you know, nice looking people. One of the funny things that having watched this because this was watching it for the podcast. This is actually the 3rd time I’d seen it. But this time, I watched it and I noticed that, Matt has, like, 4 lines in the whole movie. Like Really? He just stands around most of the time, but that’s okay.

Todd: With a stupid grin on his face mostly.

Craig: He’s

Todd: just happy go lucky guy.

Craig: Good, nice guy, whatever. Okay. So they are going to they’re headed to Cygnet Reef. I have no idea where that is, but that’s apparently where they’re headed. But on the way, they stop at this little island that Luke knows about, and it’s this tiny little island, you know, no people on it, and it’s it’s beautiful. And, Warren stays on the boat, but the rest of them take this inflatable dinghy out, to the island, and, they go snorkeling. And there’s just all this absolutely gorgeous underwater, videography.

Todd: There really is.

Craig: And and, you know, I’ve seen, you know, nature specials and things. The the Great Barrier Reef is. I mean, it’s just it’s it’s stunning. You know, the the the wildlife under there and and all that. It’s it’s it’s just absolutely beautiful, and we get to see some of that.

Todd: Well, I think this is a really big strength of the movie, and I think it’s really quite skillful of the director to do what he does here. And that is he uses this opportunity even though, to be honest, nothing super interesting happens until, like, almost halfway through the movie. It’s, like, 40 minutes in before we get to even see a shark, really. What he does here when they’re diving is he really gives a sense of what what the ocean is like and what diving is like. Most of the time you’re above water and you’re waiting, your head’s up there, and all you see is just it looks looks like flat land, you know, as far as the eye can see, nothing to see. But underneath you where your legs are dangling, there’s a whole other world, you know, that you are ignorant of until you stick your head under the water. And so it’s really neat that he has these snorkeling shots to kinda give us a sense of that world. Now I’m, I’m actually open water certified. I was lucky enough to actually that’s was one of the reasons for our trip to Australia. So I actually got to dive, and get certified on the Great Barrier Reef. And, some of the shots here that they do really capture well this experience of being under the water. And I think one of the coolest parts about it is, for example, there are shots where, of course, you know, we’ve all seen them. Right? You’re going across coral, you’re you’re seeing fish, everything’s up close, everything seems fairly shallow relatively speaking. But then, there’s this moment where I think it’s Kate. I think

Craig: it’s Kate.

Todd: It is. Mhmm. She she’s coming across. We’re kinda seeing from behind her and seeing her birds her eye her pea point of view. And suddenly that drops off. It’s almost like an underwater cliff basically, where suddenly it’s just completely deep and dark and you can’t see anything. Right. And that is a bit spooky. It is like coming up to the edge of a cliff. And it’s part of what’s so amazing about it. But in a in another way, it’s what gets a little bit scary about diving. And that is when you come across this sudden depth like that. And at that moment, the way that the camera lingers and the way that the music is and the kind of the look on her face through her snorkel and everything is really well edited to where you’re almost expecting something to just come out of that darkness. Right? Like a creature would jump out of the fog in a horror movie. It doesn’t but, you know, later on we revisit that same scenario and that that same feeling, you know, that we get. It’s like he’s priming the pump. He’s priming us for that moment that’s gonna come later. And it’s really well set up here, I think. It’s very well done.

Craig: Yeah. Oh, I couldn’t agree more. You know, like you said, all of this stuff on the reef, you know, is is very beautiful. It’s what we are, used to seeing when we see that kind of nature photography, you know, in the ocean. But like you said, there’s just that drop off. And and I thought that it was so it it built the tension because underwater, you know, they’ve got goggles, you know, so they can see. But in that great depth, their vision is very limited. You know? They can maybe see, you know, I don’t know, what, 15, 20 yards, but then everything just becomes very fuzzy and blurry and it’s just kind of like infinite space. And and later in the movie when they are being hunted by sharks, what’s his name? The main guy, Luke, is constantly underwater looking for them, and he’s just kind of looking into this infinite space and and the these giant sharks will just kind of materialize seemingly out of nowhere. And by the time that you see them, they’re right there. They just appear, and and it’s nightmarish. I love the ocean. I I absolutely love being in the water and being in the ocean, but it’s terrifying. You know, it’s it it is like outer space, you know. It’s it’s so it’s it it like you said, it’s it’s a whole different world and and I felt like they did a really good job of, really and and this movie has one and, it’s really Todd. And you know when when they’re looking around at all the pretty coral and the pretty fish, you know, it’s, the music’s very ambient and, you know, it’s it’s really nice and pretty. And then all of a sudden, when she sees this drop off, you know, there’s there’s just a change in the score to indicate that change in Todd. And, I just I thought it was really well done. It kind of had me at that point.

Todd: I would say the score saves it honestly. The first 40 minutes would be pretty boring without those musical cues and sometimes that works against a movie, you know, sometimes you can kinda see through that and that’s really transparent. They’re trying to make things seem scary with just the music, but really nothing’s going on and you feel a little cheated. In here, you just get a slowly building tension and I think the music contributes to that. Like I said, it’s really priming the pump for later. And I just think it skillfully does that. It just comes in at the right moments. It’s the right tone and everything. Like you, I couldn’t say enough good things about the music for this movie for sure.

Craig: Yeah. And and I thought that they also did a good job in this moment. You know, Kate, it’s mostly from her perspective at this point. You know, she sees a sea turtle. That’s beautiful. She sees all these little tropical fish. Beautiful. But then all of a sudden, she also sees a little sand shark, you know, and it’s a small shark. It doesn’t really pose any threat, but it just is a reminder these things are out there, you know, like, you’re on their turf, and I thought that was a nice little touch. They hang out on the island for a while, Luke and Kate, The the two couples split off, and Luke and Kate kiss, and then they talk, and then they kinda like, their talking gets kind of tense because he, it seems like, is totally ready just to jump back into their relationship, and she is still a little bit reluctant. And, so there’s some tension there.

Todd: Oh, but it’s so it’s so surface, like, I mean, remember, she’s the one who gave him the sausage. And earlier on earlier on in that scene, you know, she seemed to be the one to to wanna jump in, and he’s the one that held back. I I felt like this bit between him and her was so trite. Like, okay. Get over it already. We know you guys are gonna hook up again. Just this to me was the one unconvincing part of an otherwise honest movie was trying to force this little relationship drama between the 2 of them.

Craig: I’ll agree with you that the dialogue seemed a little silly. Is this just sex, or is it something else?

Todd: I don’t know.

Craig: You know what I think? I think you’re scared.

Todd: Scared?

Craig: Mhmm.

Todd: Scared of what?

Craig: Me. You? Us? But for me, I thought the acting was convincing enough to pull it off. I don’t know. Plus, the the guy who plays Luke, he has these deep brown eyes. I I I might I just might have lost to the enchanted. But it’s it’s, you know, it’s fairly unimportant regardless. Anyway, Matt comes running in and says, hey, there’s something wrong on the boat. So they run back out to the, beach and, Warren is like flagging them down from, from the yacht. And, Luke says, oh my gosh. The the tide is going out much more quickly than I expected. So they jump really quick in their dinghy and, they’re headed towards the boat, but they hit the reef. And and the dinghy starts to lose air and eventually completely deflates. But not before they get there. They get back and there’s kind of this, tense moment where all of a sudden now they’re in the shallows. And the reef, while it’s very beautiful, is also can be very destructive, for boats or even for people, you know, it’s sharp, you can cut yourself on it, whatever. But, they, they get out of trouble, and they get back on the water and they’re sailing and, you know, the the night passes and the morning comes and in the morning, Kate and Luke make up like, oh, sorry. It got so weird yesterday,

Todd: Todd here on out, everything’s great. Right. Right. They’re fine.

Craig: So Luke goes down below to start making breakfast. And then out of nowhere, there’s this huge, well, they hit something. I mean, that’s that’s what happens. Presumably, part of the reef, they hit. But it happens so quickly that as the viewer, you really have no idea what’s going on. Like, it just goes dark and all of a sudden, the boat is full of water and down is up and up is down. And eventually, Luke makes his way outside of the boat, and it has completely flipped over. And Kate, who was topside when this happened, she’s in the water, but everybody else was still inside, presumably, maybe even still asleep. And so Luke goes back in looking for them and and he gets them. You know, he he gets, Susie out first and then he finds Warren and gets him out. And then, Matt’s the last one he finds and, and Matt is kind of trapped behind a door that’s stuck, but they get him out. And so they’re, they’re all on the outside of the side of the boat and Warren says, let’s get out of the water. And, and you can tell that he’s very concerned. So they so they all climb up on top of the flipped boat, and they realize that it’s it’s damaged beyond repair. You know? There’s I don’t know what they would do anyway. Like, even if it wasn’t, like, how are they gonna flick

Todd: this huge Right. So Luke

Craig: is looking out at the rubble that’s floating around and he sees it drifting away. And so he draws the conclusion that they are on a current and that this current is pulling them farther out to sea, which, you know, if they weren’t capsized wouldn’t be a big deal, but because they are, he says It’s really easy not to get found out here. This boat’s gonna sink, and it’s gonna sink soon. There’s land over there, and that’s where I think we should be going. We know that this island that we were on is north. I get now see, here’s the other thing. This island that they were on was beautiful, but it wasn’t even the it was like maybe the size of a football field. And they are out in the middle of the ocean. Like, you can swim North all you want, but what Are you gonna are the Todd? Yeah. Right? Yeah. I guess what it boils down to is that he says they don’t really have any choice. You know, they’re out in the middle of the ocean. He says, Luke says the boat is sinking. It’s going to sink. So if we stay on it, we’re going to end up in the water. Anyway, we’re just going to be even farther away from land than we are now. Gosh. I don’t know. We gotta do.

Todd: You know, that’s what I was thinking. I was like, what would I do in this situation? I mean, I guess he’s right, But are you better off floating on a boat? Or are you better off floating in the water swimming in some direction that, you know, who knows? You know? I mean, he thinks it’s only gonna be 10 to 12 miles of swimming. I say, you’re swimming in a water with currents. How can you stay aimed properly?

Craig: And it’s only gonna be 10 to 12 miles. Like, when’s the last time you

Todd: used to walk 10 to 12 miles? Like, like,

Craig: no no way. Right. And, you know, so there’s there’s a it’s not really conflict because nobody’s forcing anybody to do anything, but Luke goes back under the boat to, you know, gather whatever supplies that he can gather. And and they do have an emergency beacon, but he explains that it’s an old one and, you know, really a plane has to be flying right over you if it’s gonna if they’re gonna hear it or whatever. So he does, he goes back under there. And this is actually a really good scene in the movie, I thought. You know, he’s under the boat and the the sound effects are great. You know, it’s very tense with the sound of the water and the sound of things banging around under there. And he hears, at some point, the people on top of the boat start banging, banging, banging on the boat, and he can hear them. And if you listen closely, what they’re saying is very muffled, obviously, but you can kind of hear them say come up, and you can hear the word shark. Mhmm. He sticks his head out, and again, this is just another one of those shots where he’s looking around, but it’s just open space. Right? Like, he he comes back up and they say, well, we we saw something break the water. He’s, well, what was it? I don’t know. And he says, okay. Well, I’ve gotta get these supplies so unless you actually see a shark, don’t call me back up. So he goes down and again, I I’m breezing by this because there’s not much to say about it, but it’s a really effective scene, under there where

Todd: And the cinematography again, the photography is really good down here. And, I mean, there’s a lot of care that went into this. The lighting is quite good. Not only is it good and visible, but it’s realistic, you know? And this is something you could really fudge. I think as a filmmaker, just, you know, shaky camera up and and show close ups here and there and and try to not spend too much time, you know, showing you details. But, I really felt like I was down there under the boat with him. I got a real clear sense of of the geography down there and what he was doing and what he had available and where he had to go to get out. And and I just say that because you don’t often find that in movies in difficult situations like this. Yeah. Hats off, seriously, to all of the all of the the cinematography in this film. It’s it’s it’s very good.

Craig: Yeah. And it it’s very, you know, it’s very claustrophobic. And, of course, you know, they’re in this kind of catastrophic situation and and that the tension plays. It reminded me, this is kind of a random, connection, but, did you ever see Dead Calm with, Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane and No.

Todd: I didn’t.

Craig: Well, you should. It’s really Todd. But

Todd: there’s a

Craig: there’s a similar scene, where one of the characters is under a capsize boat. Anyway

Todd: Really reminded me of sleepaway camp a few weeks ago. No. Sure.

Craig: Remember that jerk was like that?

Todd: The capsize boat, the capsize canoe singing to himself, and it looked like daylight under there. Almost the same thing.

Craig: Pretty much. Pretty much. Similar quality. Oh, Todd. Alright. So he gets his he gets supplies. He goes back up, and, they’re gonna go. He get he starts passing out wet suits, and he gives one to Susie and Warren gives Susie a look and Susie’s like, what? And he’s like, you look like a seal in that. Sharks love seals. Oh

Todd: my gosh. Okay. So this is stupid too. I’m sorry. I I don’t get I don’t buy this. I don’t buy this Warren thing. I think I mean, it’s thrown in there, and yeah. Okay. Warren’s afraid of the water, but Warren’s Warren’s character is that he is super familiar with the ocean. He says I fished in these waters so whatever I know what’s down there blah blah blah. He’s telling her that a person in a wet suit looks like a seal to a shark. None of this really rings true. As a diver, I’m telling I’ve swum with sharks, right? They’re no big deal. They really are no big deal, especially you’re out in the middle of the ocean and things like that. The chances that there’s gonna be that you’re gonna get attacked by a shark. I mean, there’s a reason that this freak accident, this thing that was was based on happened way back in 1983, you know, it just doesn’t happen. Like, jaws doesn’t really happen, you know. So this notion that he has this this knowledge and that this expert here is super afraid, it’s kind of like the complete opposite of what it should be. That bothered me a little bit. I mean, I get it for the dramatic purposes and that’s fine. I’ll give it a pass. But for for a movie that does such a good job, I think, of making things somewhat true and realistic, I I didn’t even like that ass. I think he could’ve just left that part out of his character. He could’ve had his own reason for wanting to stay or whatever or could’ve gone with him. It really wouldn’t have made a difference, except they’re just trying to up the the peril. Right? They’re trying to up the potential for for danger when they’re swimming. It’s it’s all for the movie.

Craig: See, and I guess that you’re speaking from experience that I don’t have, and I don’t know. So then I guess, is that just an urban legend? Like I had always heard that that’s why surfers were at risk because now granted there’s the whole addition of the surfboard, and I don’t know if that makes any difference, but I had heard that, you know, from below, surfers kind of are similar in shape and size to seals and so sharks were kind of attracted to that. No? That’s all just made up?

Todd: I I if it’s true, I’ve never heard of it before. Nobody in my whole dive course that I took ever said anything like you need to it was quite the opposite actually. It’s like, hope we can see some sharks, you know. You’re gonna love that. Don’t worry. They’re fine.

Craig: I guess, how Hollywood and I understand. What I know about sharks comes from horror movies. So I’m just gonna go ahead and be overly cautious. You’re you’re not you’re not gonna catch me in a shark cage. You’re not gonna catch me, you know, free diving with sharks. It’s not gonna I’m not gonna take my chances.

Todd: That’s if if somebody else

Craig: wants to do that, you know, more power to you, but I’m I I’m kind of attached to my limbs. Yeah.

Todd: So You wanna stay attached to your limbs.

Craig: You’re right. Get it.

Todd: To be fair, it’s a movie. I get it. It’s fine. We’ll move on. It’s not a big deal. It’s just one of those little things, you know, that kinda makes me roll my eyes a little bit. Yeah. It’s alright.

Craig: Okay. So they’re gonna go. Both women are reluctant, but Matt, Luke’s friend, says he’s gonna go. He says, you know, Luke knows as much about the ocean as anybody, you know, if I’m I’m gonna take his advice. So Matt’s gonna go. So, of course, his fiancee or whatever, Susie, she’s gonna go Todd. Kate takes more convincing. In fact, she says she’s not going to go. She says she’s gonna stay with Warren, and the rest of them, get in the water, and start taking off. But eventually, you know, Kate calls to them and says, hold on. I’m coming. And she tries to get Warren to go, but Warren’s not going, and and and he stays. And so they get in the water, and and they start swimming for it. Luke warns them not to splash too much. And and then this, you know, this is the rest of the movie. They’re they’re in the water and that enough is is terrifying to me. Like, I get that they’re scared to death of sharks, and I would be too. But I would be equally, if not more, scared of the idea that there’s just no way in hell that they’re gonna find land. Yeah. No way.

Todd: No way. It’s pretty miserable, and I think I’m trying to remember. I remember really loving Open Water, and that plays in the same territory like you said earlier, and I think it came out a couple years before this movie, if I’m not mistaken. They’re almost contemporaries. Right? Yeah. But, I think, if I remember correctly, one aspect of Open Water that was kind of interesting was that they started going a little crazy out there, like, they were seeing mirages or something. And I thought that would come into play here as well. In fact, you almost wonder again, you’re swimming forward and you’re freaking out. You’re worried about sharks. You’ve even seen some suspicious stuff. I mean, how could you not every second of, you know, every with every other kick, you’re thinking you see something in the waves out there, you know. It’d just be a nightmare situation for sure.

Craig: Yeah. Absolutely. And, you know, so they’re swimming along and, they see, I gosh. I don’t know. You know, They’re at first, they’re kinda talking and laughing, and then something breaks the water, and that quiets them down really quick. And, Luke checks underwater. He doesn’t see anything, so they keep swimming. And then they see this giant they see something floating in the water. And, as they get a little bit closer, they think that it’s a turtle. And, Matt swims out to it and and kind of turns it around. Now I don’t know what they were expecting to see. This turtle has to be dead. They don’t float above water like that. But when he turns around this giant sea turtle, its head and its forelimbs, appear to have been mangled, you know, bitten off, which freaks them out and would freak me out too. And they have to get, away from that, so they swim away, but Susie’s totally freaked out. We cut briefly back to Warren on the boat, and he sees something circling the boat, and eventually we see that it’s big sharks, and then they cut it cuts back to the 4. And then that’s the last we ever see of Warren. We never see him again. Poor Warren. Yep. Hi, Warren. Thanks. It was fun. The 4 of them are back together. They’re they’re kind of panic well, Susie starts freaking out and and says there I see something. There’s something below the water. Something’s following us. And at first, nobody else sees anything, and Luke checks underwater. He doesn’t see anything. And then he kinda maybe glimpses something, but he’s not sure. And he says, keep going. And then he checks again. And then this is that shot where he’s just looking into the deep. And then it’s it’s it’s almost like something coming into focus in a blurry d screen, but the shark just is coming right towards them. And it’s a huge freaking great white shark.

Todd: It’s massive. It’s huge.

Craig: And it it also just makes you or it made me, anyway, realize the enormity of the ocean because, you know, here they are, these little insignificant, you know, nothings floating in the infinite space, and then here comes this enormous fish, but it’s it doesn’t you almost can’t even get the scale of it because there’s nothing else to compare it to. You know, like, it’s just, it’s, it’s like, it’s just floating in the void. It’s, it’s crazy. He comes up and he says, there’s a shark. And so they’re all freaking out and it’s circling them. And it’s really close. I would say that at some points, you know, it’s like within feet of them.

Todd: Well, isn’t this somewhere around here is the point where it just kinda brushes right up against them, right? It kinda comes out of the water and over a little bit?

Craig: It does. It pops up right next to them. Like, it it brushes up against Kate so much so that she loses her half of the paddle board. This is when I was wondering, you know, how much of this can really be real? You know, like, I I can believe actors if they were trained, you know, being in the water with sharks in relatively close proximity. Like you said, they’re probably gonna be okay. I I think even I know that for the most part, sharks are, you know, mostly inquisitive. But if if they, you know, sense any danger or whatever, they’ll, you know, kinda be on their way for the most part. But this shark comes up right on top of them.

Todd: Yeah. Literally. I I thought this that has to be. I mean, they said, from what I read, there was no CGI or anything. All the sharks were real. And I thought if any scene in this film had some compositing done or had a fake shark or something in it, it had to be that one. So, that was a pretty impressive little bit of little shot if if that was a real shark.

Craig: It’s really quick. It happens very fast. It looks very real. It’s very scary. And, you know, like I said, the it it knocks the flotation device away from Kate, and it so then now it’s, I don’t know, like, 20 feet away or something. And Matt, decides to swim for it, and and he goes for it, and he gets to it, but then the shark just hits him. Like, you see it coming up right behind him, and it hits him, and it it takes him down, and he pops back up, and there’s blood everywhere, and they start swimming to him. My

Todd: leg’s gone. You gotta oh, you gotta go. You gotta leave. No. You can’t. I can’t swim. No. It’s coming. I’m useless, please. You gotta go. He’s gonna. He’s gonna come back. Why are you so Okay. You’re just so

Craig: And that was one of the things that I read was actually based on the true story. The first one of the victims who was hit lost his leg from what I read, and it was very brief. It wasn’t a detailed description, but, it said that, you know, he kind of very bravely swam away from the other two people in the water to try to keep the shark away from them. And that’s not exactly what happens here. You know, they go to him and he says go away, go away, go away. And then he passes out like he’s gone. He could be unconscious. He could be dead. I mean, even though if he lost his leg and he’s losing that much blood, I mean, it wouldn’t take long. But they do. They swim away from him, and then the shark comes back and and finishes them off.

Todd: Yeah. That’s basically I mean, we’re about we’re almost an hour into the movie when when he dies. And I think that with the attack on him, and later on, I think about an an hour and 10 minutes later, Susie Susie gets taken. Both of these cases, it’s just what I really like about this movie, I think is just how sudden and quiet these deaths are. Uh-huh. They just feel very again, like, they feel like they’re a more realistic portrayal than somebody, like, flailing around screaming. It just boom, the shark’s got you. It bit his leg, it or yanks him under. You don’t hear anything, you barely see anything, and when he comes up he’s not in the state to scream or yell or do anything. He’s got minutes to go before he goes into shock or passes out And the same thing with Susie, when she goes, it’s the same sort of deal. She gets yanked under. If you’re not even looking in her direction, you might not even notice it, You know? Right. It’s just heart wrenching. I felt it was, like, super heart wrenching just how quick it was. Yeah. It just makes you think, like, and you watch enough of these horror movies and they really try to make the deaths, an ordeal. You know, there’s supposed to be a big scene. Right? It’s supposed to be some some battle or some real intensity, some build or whatever, and this is kind of how death is sometimes. It just happens, and the terror is in the suddenness of it. One minute they were there, the next minute they’re not there, and it’s tragic. You know, it’s absolutely tragic. There’s no fight to put up. There’s no nothing, And that’s I think that’s the emotion that I got out of this movie. I’ll I’ll be honest with you. I wasn’t crying through this movie. I wasn’t super you know, I didn’t feel like it was I didn’t even feel like it was super intense Todd be quite honest with you for most of it. But these scenes still had that impact on me because I think they were played out in this way.

Craig: Yeah. Well, and and this scene, you know, was a little bit heart wrenching too because, you know, Susie’s his girlfriend, so you expect her to be upset. And she she clearly is, but she keeps it to either she keeps it together a little bit more or she she’s so in shock that she just allows Luke to kind of drag her away. But I had kind of forgotten up until this moment that Matt is Kate’s brother.

Todd: Mhmm.

Craig: And she freaks out, you know, as you would. You know, she’s devastated, and she’s screaming and crying and begging him to stay, you know, as he’s probably already dead. And I thought the acting was Todd, you know. And and after after that, another night passes, and they they wake up the next morning. And the cool thing when they wake up the next morning is they see land. Now it’s not the island that they were looking for, but it’s this little, you know, outcropping of land on the reef, and it’s like right there, you know, a couple 100 yards away probably, but within sight, definitely within reach. And they start swimming for it, and there’s a tense moment where they think the shark is back, but and then they all laugh because it was really just a dolphin. But then just seconds later, Susie says, wait a second. Is that the dolphin? And like you said, just out of nowhere, boom, she’s gone. Like Mhmm. Like, the shark just it just hits her. You don’t see it coming. She’s she’s just gone. And she, you know, resurfaces for a second, but then she’s gone again. And Matt, or excuse me, Luke looks down, with his goggles under the water, and you just see this trail of blood. Like, clearly, the shark has taken her into the depths. And and, you know, like, so they’re so close to this this area of land and they’re on the reef. So there are these little places where they can kind of stop and get up out of the water. And you just think that, they’ve gotta make it. They’ve gotta make it. They’re so close. They’re right there. But Todd get there, you know, there are these areas of reef, but there are also these areas of deep water that they still have to go over. And the shark just keeps coming. It just keeps coming after them. And so, they swim and swim and swim. There’s a moment where they stop again on one of these little, you know, pieces of the reef, and Kate realizes that her foot is bleeding, which can’t be good when there’s a shark in the water. And, but they’re swimming, swimming. And, and the shark is like literally chasing them. Like it’s, it’s right behind them, and they get there. And the first time I saw this now I knew what happened the second and third time I saw it, but the first time I saw it, I’m like, Come on. Come on. Come on. Like, they’re right there. And, and sadly, it’s not like a beach where they can just walk out, you know, like it’s this big rock formation so it’s elevated and so it’s difficult for them to get out and, Luke pushes Kate up and she gets up there and then he’s like, pull me up. Pull me up. Pull me up. And she’s trying to pull him up, and you see the shark coming, and he doesn’t make it. Yep. The shark just grabs him and takes him down. And, you know, she’s screaming and Craig, please come back. Please come back. And he and he does it.

Todd: And that’s the end.

Craig: Yeah. That’s

Todd: it. And once again, it’s not like his body pops back up. It’s not like you see a big red spot in the water. Anything super dramatic is just like, boom, he’s gone. Stillness. Her screaming, end credits.

Craig: Yeah. I mean, they do give us a little epilogue script. It says that Kate was rescued, the next day by a fishing trawler, and it says that despite a massive search, no remains of Warren or the yacht were ever found. Gosh. I’m I’m kind of conflicted about the ending because it’s so gut wrenching. You know, they’re right there. You know, like, you’re literally home free and then it gets them anyway. And I was talking like, I, my partner asked me what movie we watched, and I was kinda telling him about it. And he’s like, okay. So who made it? Who died? And I was telling him. And I was telling him about this scene, and I was like and he pushes her up, and then she starts to pull him up, and the shark gets him. And I’m like, it’s totally her fault. Like,

Todd: could you try a little harder?

Craig: Like, come on. There’s a shark right behind me.

Todd: I don’t know, man. She didn’t have a chance. I was looking at this and thinking she was gonna get pulled back into the water because it Todd you know, for her to get up there in the first place was a miracle. And then it’s just such a smooth rock, slippery rock surface. I thought for sure in her attempts to pull him up, she’d end up getting pulled back down. You know, so

Craig: And that

Todd: could have happened. So I don’t know. You know, this this is a different kind of movie. It’s it’s one of these based on a true story. It’s more of a tragedy. I don’t know, than a horror within the standard horror movie that we see. You know? A lot of horror movies, they’ve got some moral center to them. You know? It’s like people tend to get what’s coming to them or there’s some, you know, people doing stupid things and they pay for it. In this sense, it’s just a bunch of friends who are go who are going out on a fun little trip somewhere. They’re all they’re not doing anything they’re not supposed to do. Nothing bad is supposed to happen to them, and something bad happens, and Yeah. Only one person survives.

Craig: Yeah. It’s just a wrong place, wrong time.

Todd: Yeah. And so in that sense, it’s like, oh, bit of a downer. For me, anyway, it just it is what it is. It’s I I can’t say I thought the movie was fantastic. I can’t even say that I felt like it was, dramatically interesting through most of it. I mean, there were moments. You know? There were the moments, but, I mean, it’s just it’s kinda like open water in a way. Like, it’s people out in the middle of the water. What what what more can they really do? You know? Right. There aren’t places to run to. There aren’t places to hide. You’re just waiting for them to get attacked. And then after they’re attacked, you’re waiting for the next person to get attacked. And there’s nothing clever somebody’s gonna come up with. There’s nothing, there’s no big reveal or something that’s gonna happen. It’s just gonna play out. And so Right. In that sense, it was, for me, not as exciting as, say, Jaws 3 d. Sure. Or whatever. But, but I appreciate it. It’s a fine bit of filmmaking and still had its emotional punches. And, again, when you hear that it’s based on a true story, you you know, your heart kinda goes out for the the victims and that. And so, you know, it’s it’s it’s great. It’s a nice little movie, but, for me, it it’s okay. I probably not gonna watch it again.

Craig: Yeah. I get it. Yeah. I I kind of hoped that you would like it more, but I I get where you’re coming from. The first time I saw it was a long time ago, and I just remembered it fondly. And then the second time I watch it, I told you I woke up in the middle of the night. I couldn’t sleep, so I just put it on, and I ended up watching the whole thing. And I thought, it’s not as good as I remember. And then I sat down to watch it, for for this. And, you know, I was watching it with more of a critical eye. And I think that I just appreciated it for its components. You know? The the acting is good. The cin the cinematography is great. And you’re right. It’s not a standard horror movie, but movies like this do get to me. I I don’t know necessarily scare me more, but they do get to me in a way that’s your typical horror movie doesn’t get to me in that this could happen. Like, it would be 1 in a 1,000,000,000 that it would happen to me but it could happen and that there’s just something really unsettling about that. It’s it’s not gonna keep me out of the ocean, but, I I I’m I’m not gonna be swimming with sharks. You’re I’m telling you, you’re not

Todd: gonna find me. You’re not gonna have the pleasure of doing that. Maybe this is some of my own little bias coming into. You know, I’ve hinted before that, but for me movies are pretty are escapism and if you start to get a little too real about it it just bothers me a little too much you know and and it kinda pisses me off sometimes. Like, I feel like my emotions have been toyed with. I don’t wanna be reminded sometimes that the world is a terrible place, and not everybody comes out okay or deserves what they get. And and one thing that’s kind of nice about horror movies in general is that they’re not usually so nihilistic as you would imagine they would be, you know. Right. Right. About all the horrible subjects they are. Generally, like I said, there’s kind of a moral center and people get what’s coming to them and the bad things happen to the quote unquote right people, you know, and the pure survive. Whereas movies like this, you know, I finished watching and I just kind of sometimes feel sick to my stomach like, this is just reminding me the world’s not that way, You know, bad. True. It’s happened to bad to people Todd good people for no good reason. And, and and then they live with that tragedy. And so I can I can’t say I enjoy it as much, you know? So maybe that’s a little bit of where I’m coming from as well deep down inside. Does that make sense?

Craig: Well, even for you who was not a huge, fan of this movie, but even more so for our other listeners out there, I would really recommend this director’s other, major feature film, which was Black Water.

Todd: I was interested reading about it, about a crocodile in the jungle. Right?

Craig: Yeah. It’s a very similar movie. You know? It’s it’s the same kind of thing, you know, kind of people in nature being stalked by this, deadly predator. And it’s also set in Australia, but it’s set more like you were talking about kind of in the rainforest, marshy areas. And these people, you know, just kind of go out on a day cruise or whatever, and, they are attacked by this crocodile. And, again, I I I watched it right after I watched this movie specifically because I enjoyed this movie, and I remember enjoying it too. It may be very similar. If you were to watch it, you might have the same feelings about it that you had about this movie, but, I would recommend it. I I liked it. We should maybe take a look at it sometime.

Todd: You gotta see a movie that’s different, you know, and this movie is definitely different. It’s not it’s not your ordinary shark movie. It’s it’s it’s good in that way, I think. And I actually, you know, as an Australian movie, we don’t review many Australian movies because they don’t get a fair shake, really. I mean, Hollywood is such a force that, a lot of other countries just have a hard time breaking away from that and and against that. But this movie I read had a very interesting marketing campaign in that they live streamed, and this was back in 2010. They live streamed to, like, up to I think it was, like, 10,000 people a day who could get online and watch the whole behind the scenes process of making this movie, and that’s pretty cool as well.

Craig: I agree. Yeah.

Todd: I I would recommend checking it out if this kind of movie appeals to you for sure.

Craig: Like you said, it may not be for everybody, but, I think that it’s very competently made. I I enjoyed it. It. Alright. Well, thank you for tuning in to another episode of 2 guys in a chainsaw. If you enjoyed this episode, we’ve got all kinds of back episodes. You can find us, at our website at 2 guys dot red forty net dot com. Is that right, Todd?

Todd: That’s the one.

Craig: Or you can find it. We’ve got a Facebook page. You can find us on iTunes, Google Play all over the place. We would love to hear any feedback that you’ve got for us, whether that be, your opinions on this movie or anything else you’d like to chat with us about. That wraps up our summer movie theme month. We’re gonna be moving on to some requests, and it’s funny Since, since we have been saying that we’re gonna be doing a request, we’ve gotten a lot

Todd: of them. Oh my gosh. We’ve got enough requests to last us the rest of the year.

Craig: I know. If if you have a movie you’d like us to watch, go ahead and throw your title, in the hat. Those of you out there who are throwing out requests, you’re throwing out some stuff, some good stuff, some stuff I’ve never heard of. So Yeah. I’m really looking forward to that. But until then, I’m Craig, and I’m with 2 Guys and a Chainsaw.