Director: Sean Byrne
Cast: Hassie Harrison, Josh Heuston, Rob Carlton, Jai Courtney
Have I Seen it Before: Nope. I was completely unaware of the film, until it was a last-minute replacement on our Beyond the Cabin in the Woods schedule. We were going to watch Him, and then decided against it after the film has already disappeared from our collective consciousness.
Thank goodness for last minute additions to this show. Without them, I might have missed both this and Sinners this year.
Did I Like It: It is not exceptional praise to say this is the best Shark film since Jaws (1975). There has literally never been a good shark film since then. So what I will say is that the film is a masterclass in horror movie pacing. At least five separate times, I thought I had a handle on where the film was going*—and being a little bored with that series of events—only to have the film send me in a completely different and thrilling direction.
One begins the movie thinking that I’m going to have to deal with Just Another Shark Movie™, and it suddenly—as one of these events would likely come to pass, were it to really happen—becomes an encounter with a deranged human killer. Then it becomes a credible rehash of Split (2016) or The Black Phone (2022). Then it’s Dead Calm (1985) for a good long stretch. Finally, Manhunter (1986) and Red Dragon (2002) get their due course. All of this before it circles back around to being the first credible shark movie since Spielberg swore off returning to the water for the rest of eternity.
*Often these occasional doldrums surrounded Tucker’s (Courtney) travails with trying to keep VHS and minimal apparent extra lighting as a valid means of documenting his crimes.