Hollywood's invention of the thriller genre is fairly old, not quite as old as the comedy, drama, horror, war, western, musical or even sci-fi ones, but old nonetheless. Thrillers are typically reserved for the dramatic and horror genres as to give that special twist. So when the thriller "Jaws" was released back in 1975, it started a phenomenon that has stuck with us today. Since we've seen the Jaws sequels, "Piranha", and the more recent "The Shallows". Now with "47 Meters Down" in the books, will this kind of film carry on?
Two sisters, Lisa (Mandy Moore) and Kate (Claire Holt) vacationing in Mexico become trapped in a shark cage on the ocean floor 47 meters down. As their oxygen starts to run out and with great white sharks circling them, the sisters must find away to get to the surface alive.
Between the two sisters, Kate is the outgoing one whereas Lisa is the boring, not willing to take chances one. Kate is able to convince Lisa in taking a shark cage excursion nearby run by Captain Taylor (Matthew Modine). The idea is to drop the women 5 meters down so they can excite at the view of great white sharks and maybe take a few picture, etc. Then, all of a sudden, the cage bolts and the wench breaks and they plunge to 47 meters down. Will they survive? Can they reach the surface?
Others to round out the cast are Chris J. Johnson as Javier, Yani Gellman as Louis and Santiago Segura as Benjamin.
This was eerily directed by Johannes Roberts ("Alice" '02, "Hellbreeder" '04, "Darkhunters" '04, "Forest of the Damned" '05, "F" '10, "Roadkill" (TV movie) '11, "Storage 24" '12, "The Other Side of the Door" '16) plus TV. Certainly this film isn't a far cry for this filmmaker considering his resume, but the plus is that with horror being a good deal of his work, this film is a thriller and not necessarily horror. Will see if he can continue to branch his way out of horror and more into the thriller genre. It was interestingly written by Roberts and Ernest Riera. If there is any other film that could compare with this is "The Shallows". They both involve a person(s) trapped with sharks or shark nearby so it ends up as a cat-and-mouse game. But even with "The Shallows", it didn't involve a shark cage, but rather a surfer trapped on an over sized rock 200 feet from shore with a shark waiting. So although they were similar, they still differed. The writing was able to capture the sheer terror of the two women that were unable to escape the sunken cage and certainly kept me riveted for the 90 minute running time. This is not to say there were no problems with this. There was a bit of choppiness and some lack of cohesiveness in script and at one point, when you thought it was over, there was more. This is OK, but it was conveyed like there was a continuity issue, but after watching it realized what was going on.
For those that are thriller fans, this, like "The Shallows" and even "Jaws" will be the film for you. It's short, cuts to the chase and keeps you on the edge of your seat all done in a 4DX format as well as 2D. Grab the popcorn and prepare to be scared.
Out of 4 Stars: 3 Rated: PG-13 89mins.
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