Arriving in cinemas amid huge hype, this low budget cross between ‘Jaws’ and ‘The Blair Witch Project’ has only two things in common with the aforementioned films and these are sharks and digital cameras, as it is not even mildly scary.
I was looking forward to this as I get quite scared at the thought of swimming anywhere other than a pool for a fear of what lurks beneath, but this was so tame that I got more upset watching ‘Finding Nemo’.
Obviously, the film is based on true events which are now well documented, so it managed to hold my interest throughout, but I did actually sit bewildered during the non event of a climax as I could not believe how dull it was.
The two leads are very good, especially Blanchard Ryan who I hope to see more of (although I did see a lot of her here) and the film manages to be interesting, funny, warm and yet tinged with sadness but was certainly nowhere near as frightening as ‘Jaws’.
Perhaps my biggest problem here was the fact that I couldn’t relate to the position the characters found themselves in as I would never go diving, so was unable to recall on my own experiences, which is something that I was able to do with BWP as I have been in the woods before.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Whilst it isn’t scary in the slightest, ‘Open Water’ has an interesting premise and manages to keep your attention throughout so is still worth seeing, just don’t expect to be terrified.
