Open Water

Chris Kentis 2003

Forget the Sharks, the Jellyfish are the evil ones.

This film has been hyped as a cross between “Blair Witch” and “Jaws” but that is incredibly misleading, obviously whoever said that could only think of one low budget film and one film with Sharks in.

Loosely based on a true story of two divers stranded in the ocean after their boat leaves without them, this is less of a creature feature and more of a study of human reaction to adverse conditions; the reaction mostly seems to be bickering.

While mercifully brief (around 80 minutes) this film did suffer some moments of tedium. A few too many shots of sunlight on water and clouds drifting by for my liking. Also it being a film of tiny budget, it was shot using DV (digital video) which does make it look slightly iffy, especially the bright areas onscreen, and the light saturation becomes almost headache inducing

Like I said this isn’t a monster movie, the tension lies in the brief glimpses of the circling Sharks and those quiet moments when the two divers (and the audience) wonder where the Sharks have gone. Since the two divers are the core of the film, it’s the actor’s performances that make or break “Open Water”, and both Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis manage quite well. The dialogue and interaction between them seems natural, and because of the use of DV it’s more like watching someone’s holiday video than a feature film.

While not being the masterpiece I was led to believe it was, “Open Water” is an effective low budget film and should be an inspiration to anyone who wants to make movies.