Written by: Chris Kentis
Starring: Blanchard Ryan, Daniel Travis, Saul Stein, Michael E. Williamson
Rating: [2/5]
Each individual carries their worst fears in life. Circumstances and situations that would frighten beyond all else from spiders, heights, and pretty much everything else this world has to offer given the individual. Getting stranded in the middle of the ocean would certainly sit firmly in the list of many individuals, which Open Water digs right into as we follow these protagonists into a terrifying situation.
Frustrated with the stress of their working lives, married couple Daniel Kinter (Daniel Travis) and Susan Watkins (Blanchard Ryan) take a long overdue vacation where they plan to go scuba diving. As they go out with their group to the ocean they enjoy their dive but because of some lack of good counting, the boat leaves without them therefore stranding them with nowhere to go or a way to call for help.
Getting stuck in the situation these characters do in this film genuinely scares the life out of me and I’m sure of every human being on the planet. It combines a fear of being outside of a human’s preferred terrain with the hopelessness of no possible salvation. Getting stranded on an island at the very least gives the person the opportunity to stay dry on land, find shelter and sustenance somewhere on said island. Floating in the middle of the ocean means none of those options exist and it leaves the person susceptible to everything the open water has to offer negatively. The simple notion of having to continually work to stay afloat alone would drive one insane, but then this feature throws in the sharks.
Not only does this film throw in the dreaded circumstance of isolation out in the water, but of course sharks find their way into the fray as it throws in another genuine fear individuals have of these animals. The way they get captured in this film adds to the naturalistic approach of this experience as they use genuine footage of sharks as it builds out this terrifying situation even more as one shark bite would unleash even more problems for them. It makes the prospect of waiting for the arrival of some help even more unlikely given they have to survive these sharks circling for them on top of everything else lowering their chances of successfully getting out of this predicament.
With this narrative having its core inspiration on a real circumstance where this happened to two tourists, this feature had to display how in the world this could potentially happen. How can a boat crew possibly leave behind two of their paying customers and the way this feature displays it borders on comedy. It shows one of the operators counting how many return from the water because of some unprepared bozo, the count gets messed up. A truly incompetent manner in which this all happens that makes no sense other than the fact this actually happened. Well, perhaps not exactly, but given there were two empty seats with personal belongings there and no one noticed does make one question the proficiency of this company and makes me hope someone hit them with a hefty lawsuit because of it.
Given all of this, this feature still feels underbaked in building out these characters as individuals worth following outside of the situation they find themselves in. These two mostly bicker throughout the early stages of the film and prove themselves quite insufferable for the majority of it. Adding this to the fairly lackluster way in which most of these scenes get captured through the camera leaves this shabbiness that never really goes away. It gives this home video presentation that makes it feel less cinematic and more so fairly grating to watch for the most part, further making the case that the premise does most of the heavy lifting here and the execution does do much to help.
Playing on a fear many rightfully have, Open Water knows how to get under the skin of individuals watching this feature, but that’s all it really does. Getting stranded in the middle of the ocean would terrify many but the lack of intriguing characters and its filmmaking style left so much to be desired. There’s a simplicity to this story that needed a bit more to justify feature length that it never quite earned, leading to mostly lackluster returns.
Films with Josh 