A group of friends finds themselves stranded at sea with a shark eyeing its next meal. Here’s our Something In The Water review.
Shark films are very in right now. Sting director Kiah Roache-Turner is working on one as is Renny Harlin, plus Netflix’s Under Paris is one of the streamer’s most watched films ever.
Hayley Easton Street is now adding her take on sharks eating people with Something In The Water. Posed as a survival thriller rather than a full-blown horror movie, the film follows a group of women, who have been reunited at a destination wedding in the Caribbean.
A fabulous day of sunbathing on a near-by island turns into a fight for survival after Ruth (Ellouise Shakespeare-Hart) is bitten by a sneaky shark in the shallow waters. The group finds themselves stranded in the shark-infested waters after Cam (Nicole Rieko Setsuko) wrecks the boat.
The premise here is simple: put a bunch of women in water with sharks and have one of them bleeding to attract the buggers even more. The result should be a bloody good time, yet Something In The Water is constantly on the edge of more, but feels held back.
There’s a lot to chew on in Something In The Water. The dynamic within the group is very specific and likely very familiar to women watching the film. As soon as things get ugly, there’s a lot of panicked finger pointing, a lot of blaming each other but the women also consistently overcome their differences and work together to survive.
Meg (Hiftu Quasem) rises as the film’s natural protagonist and there’s conflict long before we even get to the sharks. As soon as she steps out of the plane, she encounters her ex-girlfriend Kayla at the airport. The other girls have sent Kayla to fetch her in the hopes that the two would make up, but it’s unlikely. Meg and Kayla survived a vile homophobic attack, which has left Meg with severe PTSD and she blames Kayla for the attack.
Meg’s arc of overcoming her trauma through another terrifying ordeal is a potent, if a little cliched, narrative but it’s not explored enough. There are some really great stylish flourishes here, such as when Meg gets off the plane and is faced with overwhelming noise at the airport after listening to a calming podcast.
Something In The Water has all the potential to be a really effective thriller, but the execution falters. There are a few scenes where the lines, most likely recorded in post-production, don’t quite match the mouth movements. Something In The Water was made with a relatively low budget and it shows, especially in the CGI. It seems that there might have been ways around it, especially in showing the sharks. Jaws, the definitive shark movie, did wonders without showing the shark much and a similar approach would have worked better here.
The acting can be a little hammy, too. Cat Clarke’s script is awash with stilted dialogue and the cast are often unable to sell it. Quasem is consistently great as Meg and Lauren Lyle rises as another standout the further the narrative goes, but it’s all not enough to make the film float.
Ultimately, Something In The Water just isn’t scary or thrilling enough to keep us invested. The shark attacks feel tame and the tension is weak. Some of the wound detail is wonderful, but for the most part, we’re not immersed into the film enough to be truly rooting or fearing for these women.
Something In The Water is in UK cinemas 21st June.
