Director: Christian Sesma
Screenplay: Chad Law, Josh Ridgway
Starring: Scout Taylor-Compton, Callum McGowan, Jon Seda, Stuart Townsend, Richard Dreyfuss
Country: USA
Running Time: 90 min
Year: 2025
BBFC Certificate: 15

On the anniversary of her father’s death by shark attack, marine biologist Cassidy (Taylor-Compton) and her treasure-hunting partner Gregg (McGowan) explore a shipwreck near Madagascar. However, with local and American pirates searching for a sunken drug shipment, can the lessons from Cassidy’s grandfather (Dreyfuss) help her survive the struggle?

2025 celebrates the 50th anniversary of Jaws, so it seems opportune for the only surviving member of the core trio of the second-greatest shark movie ever made (after Deep Blue Sea, of course) to aid the promotion of another shark movie that’s also not as good as Jaws (or Deep Blue Sea). Into the Deep isn’t a bad movie. It isn’t even a bad shark movie, and trust me, I know a bad shark movie when I see one (this is actually debatable, I’ve enjoyed far too many shark movies that many, many other people dismiss as being terrible). For certain, Into the Deep is definitely not the worst shark movie I’ve reviewed for Blueprint: Review. It features well-acted characters with clear motivations in scenes of genuine peril and excitement. It’s just a shame that the film’s primary selling point – the prominent inclusion of Dreyfuss as our protagonist’s grandfather – is also it’s biggest detriment.

Dreyfuss isn’t bad in the film. He’s fine. It’s clear he filmed in at most three, possibly two, locations, was given a fresh set of clothes before each short scene, and for the most part gets his lines out intelligibly with only the occasional flub that was left in for some reason, presumably to save on time or budget. The issue is that he’s just not necessary to the film. The story follows Cassidy and a small group of people who get entwined with pirates, mercenaries and sharks, looking for, respectively, drugs, treasure and dinner. Sounds great, gimme that aquatic action! Unfortunately, every time something exciting begins to happen, Cassidy takes a moment to stare off into the distance and remember a lesson from her grandfather, and we’re treated to a flashback of him giving an inspirational speech as she overcomes her fear and learns to swim again, or gives a lecture to his students about how humans really shouldn’t be in the water, or talks to Cassidy’s mother about how he’s concerned about his granddaughter. It takes away from the momentum of the story, and spends precious runtime boring me to tears.

Meanwhile, back on the boat there’s fun to be had with the regular shark movie beats – people are attacked, bad guys show up and are less than helpful – that sort of thing. There are far more shoot-outs than you might expect from a shark movie, and they rarely end how you might expect given the number of people on each side and who has guns clearly drawn on whom even before the fight has started, but that’s all fine. There’s a surprise harpoon, which is always fun (unless you’re on the receiving end of said surprise harpoon, in which case your enjoyment level would depend on your penchant for, you know, being shot by a surprise harpoon; each to their own and all that). The time spent with the Dreyfuss of it all means there’s far less time available for developing the characters of the other people on the boat, two of whom may as well be called Chum 1 and Chum 2 (or, given the nature of these films, Chum and Bikini Chum). Look out around 30 minutes in when a real live fish swims aggressively into Chum’s head, it’s the best part of the film.

The shark action is minimal (as expected) but the attack sequences are decent. The opening trauma scene (these films always have an opening trauma scene, check out The Reef: Stalked for the most traumatic one ever) is pretty visceral, with young Cassidy’s father being dragged repeatedly under water as he tries to get onto the boat with his family, his outstretched bloodied hand the last glimpse of him they’ll ever have. Oh, and if you were thrilled by the premise of Cocaine Bear and expected the scene in which a bag of drugs is ruptured nearby to some sharks might result in sharks rampaging on narcotics then, just like with 2023’s Deep Fear when the exact same thing happens, you’ll be just as disappointed as I was.

Speaking of shark action, the film also features an appeal from Dreyfuss over the closing credits to treat sharks nicely because they’re great. I thoroughly approve of and agree with this message – as much as I love killer shark movies, the ones I love the most show the utmost respect for sharks and tend to have humans as the true villains for messing with the sharks in the first place – it just feels a little disingenuous to place such as appeal at the end of a film in which sharks have been at least slightly portrayed as mindless killers who’ll eat you without hesitation.

Into the Deep is available to buy and rent digitally from Signature Entertainment from 27th January, and on DVD from 3rd February.

Into the Deep
2.0Overall Score
Reader Rating: (1 Vote)

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