The Shallows (2016) Film Review

Jaume Collet-Serra is perhaps the modern king of the B-movie genre. First breaking onto the scene in 2005 with the horror remake House of Wax, he made his big horror splash with 2009's Orphan (nearly earning four times its budget at the box office) before paving his way through a number of Taken-esque escapades starring Liam Neeson. From Unknown to Non-Stop and last year's Run All Night, he'd be practically synonymous to the Neeson B-movie had the Taken series not continued to shell out sequel after sequel. But with his next Neeson venture still under production, the Spanish director has taken a minor break to bring about something a little newer – a shark attack venture lead by Mrs. Deadpool, Blake Lively (an actress who's rarely been big on people's radars) and an injured seagull called Steven. Its marketing grasped audience expectations quickly to the point that the film has been quite the success story (nearly earning its budget on opening weekend), but with fellow shark attack film Jaws looming its massive shadow across this and countless other shark films, can The Shallows prove itself? 

Lively plays Nancy Adams: a medical student who's questioning whether or not to continue her studies following the death of her late mother. In order to clear her head and as a manner of mourning her parent, she's elected to travel to a mysterious beach in Mexico where Mom went surfing upon discovering her pregnancy. Getting a lift from a man who lives in the nearby area (Óscar Jaenada), she's quickly taken by just how beautiful the area is, and quickly gets out there alongside two other surfers (Angelo José Lozano Corzo & José Manuel Trujillo Salas). But when she decides to have one final surf before heading back to the hotel, she inadvertently comes across a humpback whale carcass, and in turn a persistent great white shark. Maiming her and the wing of a nearby seagull, Adams finds herself stranded on a small rock and with little signs of help. The shark is forever waiting for her to get back in the water – can she make it out alive, let alone in one piece? 

In terms of being a claustrophobic feature set in the outdoors, what The Shallows lack in pure depth it make sup for in tension – every moment set on that rock, and later the buoy, is quite simply a game of "when's that shark gonna appear?", and such moments make for mostly edge-of-your-seat stuff. That said, the first 20 minutes of this 80 minute movie play less like the opening of Jaws (where you get small glimpses ahead of a full and treacherous appearance) and more like a slow and pointless journey into the lead character's drive – complete with a hashed-out FaceTime which practically explains her motivation for being at that beach – whilst the majority of the scares are closer to being that of the jump-scare variety as opposed to the gory or the outright terrifying. But perhaps that's where it's B-movie status can shine in full glory; it's meant to be a little shoddier than the average movie, and almost certainly against an outright classic. 

With a limited number of cast members to work off of, Blake Lively does a good job at handling the film mostly solo. She does all the right in-pain faces and manages to remain tolerable and likable as the film drifts along, but perhaps if her character had been given a little more personality other than "survivor" she'd make for a more stimulating character. Her main co-star Steven Seagull is your typical avian co-star; an animal character who the audience can easily deviate towards and will care about his survival. The remaining actors do good enough in their minuscule roles, whilst the shark itself makes for a terrifying if uninspired creation. His intent is simple enough and the film rolls with that easily, but it does feel like a more elegant design could have been done on it to make it a much more memorable creation. 

An added bonus to the whole affair is the camera work and cinematography by Flavio Labiano, who instills great beauty to the environment when we first take a glimpse at "paradise", whilst the necessary darker tones as the film reaches its climax leads to some great visual flair. Director Jaume Collet-Serra still manages to create a solid flair with his work; borrowing elements from his previous films, such as the on-screen phone projection from Non-Stop, whilst shining the horrors of the sea in a fine manner.

There's very little to really discuss with The Shallows because there's very little to it – there's a shark creating havoc for a young woman who just wants to return to shore. It has a good number of scares, albeit with little class, a solid-enough lead performance by Blake Lively and a nifty little seagull. What more could you want from a film that isn’t trying to be the next Jaws? 6/10.