Deep Blue Sea, an enormous dumb film about massive good sharks, remains to be an entertaining motion horror 25 years after it first swam onto our screens.
Director Renny Harlin has had a wild profession in motion and in horror. There are highs (The Lengthy Kiss Goodnight, Cliffhanger) and lows (Cuthroat Island, Exorcist: The Starting). Deep Blue Sea didn’t precisely find yourself being lauded as a tacky horror-laced gem like its fellow 1999 blockbuster The Mummy, however within the realm of shark films? It’s nonetheless bought tooth.
It sees researchers at an underwater facility looking for the remedy for Alzheimer’s illness by learning the regenerative qualities of sharks’ brains. Sadly, it’s crunch time for the challenge financially, and the top honcho, Russell Franklin (Samuel L. Jackson), is coming to see how shut they’re to a breakthrough.
It seems they’re very shut. Nonetheless, in typical film scientists’ considering, the top researchers (performed by Stellan Skarsgard and Saffron Burrows) dope the check sharks to attain the consequence. Consequently, the Mako sharks aren’t solely greater and quicker however smarter, too. So when a violent storm and a gnarly accident happen, the good sharks take the possibility to get out and chomp on any poor souls unfortunate sufficient to be in the way in which. Due to this fact, the alternatives for the crew are easy. Get to the floor, drown, or get eaten.
The Shark Film Downside
Make no mistake. Very like exorcism films, Shark films have been chasing an unattainable excessive for a while. Style standouts that transcend stated style, corresponding to Jaws and The Exorcist, make it extraordinarily troublesome to comply with. I’ve genuinely misplaced depend of what number of occasions I’ve had hopes for a shark film and been bitterly disillusioned. And it’s been virtually 50 years since Jaws and its mechanical shark set the benchmark. There have been quite a lot of frankly terrible spins on the template in that point.
So, admittedly, the bar is fairly low for shark films to clear past Jaws. There’s extra to it than simply as a result of Jaws exists (the change in how sharks are perceived particularly). However misunderstanding what made the concept of colossal monsters of the deep lurking beneath your toes within the ocean so rattling terrifying is an enormous a part of it.
Whereas Deep Blue Sea is undoubtedly fairly goofy at occasions and clearly bored with abiding by precise shark conduct (a few of which is admittedly defined away by their enhanced skills), it doesn’t neglect the golden rule. Feed on the concern of the deep and the issues in it.
The scenes underwater the place the human crew are on the mercy of the killer beasts have rigidity to them. Particularly these in open water the place Thomas Jane’s grizzled shark wrangler Carter Blake performs a sport of rooster. On a private stage, there’s a second that stuffed me with dread that wasn’t inherently scary itself. Carter swims by means of a mesh tunnel within the facility’s caged-off part of the ocean. When he arrives at its exit, the shot reveals simply how insignificant that tunnel feels compared to the cavernous blue murk surrounding it. Deep Blue Sea could also be a largely daft chomper romp, but it surely has its moments to make thasalaphobia victims uncomfortable. Credit score must be given for the customarily excellent use of area.
Catastrophe within the Deep Blue Sea
It additionally mixes in a bit of little bit of the basic catastrophe film format. After some shark shenanigans, the underwater facility begins to flood and crumble. The crew traverses all method of perilous conditions, attempting to get to the floor while the sharks achieve extra floor (effectively, water). It might not have been sufficient by itself to make a reliable catastrophe flick, but it surely provides one thing to the monster film format that guidelines the film’s construction. Additionally, it helps that the ability itself is a good setting.
Maybe most significantly, Deep Blue Sea strikes together with the identical single-minded focus of a shark. It will get the guff out of the way in which shortly. From there, it’s a straight shoot of sharks vs. people vs. crumbling undersea facility for over an hour. Pure popcorn delight.
I don’t wish to sound outdated, however the sort of movie Deep Blue Sea is more and more troublesome to seek out in modern-day cinema. Positive, there are many genuinely low-rent homages to the motion/horror hybrid. The sequels are underwhelming proof of that. On this scale, there’s merely nothing fairly prefer it. It might not have The Mummy‘s swagger, but it surely’s simply as gloriously entertaining in its personal manner.
