Director: Jo-Anne Brechin
Screenplay: Katharine McPhee & Jo-Anne Brechin
Starring: Virginia Gardner, Mel Jarnson, Mitchell Hope
Country: Australia
Running Time: 86 min
Year: 2026
BBFC Certificate: 15
One year after a traumatic event took her boyfriend, her hearing and her motivation to graduate, Maddie (Virginia Gardner) has little going for her in life. That is until her successful influencer schoolfriend Trish (Melanie Jarnson) returns with an all expenses paid trip to Thailand to see Maddie’s childhood favourite orca, Ceto, being held there at the World of Orca amusement park. However, an ill-fated jetski ride goes awry when the newly-released Ceto seeks revenge on humanity after decades of captivity.
As the resident shark movie reviewer at Blueprint: Review, I see it as my duty, nay, my privilege, to cover not just the films depicting pointy-finned aquatic creatures, but also those focussing on ocean behemoths whose fins curl over as well. Killer Whale is one such derivatively titled feature, replacing everyone’s favourite coastal-killer with a mammoth mammalian marine maimer, allowing for just the slightest pinch of commentary on the ethics of keeping orcas imprisoned for our entertainment, over a decade after Blackfish more than adequately covered that topic. TLDR: don’t lock orcas up, it’s mean and they don’t like it.
Switching out the central creature doesn’t spare the film from following many shark movie cliches, but we don’t watch these films for originality. That being said, having the central character be hearing impaired is an element I’ve not encountered before in these kinds of films, it’s just a shame that despite being set up as a means of alerting Maddie as to when the whale is nearby through hearing aid feedback, ultimately this doesn’t really pay off. Nor does Ceto’s inherent status as a victim in the story, coming off entirely as a threat that must be defeated rather than a sympathetic creature understandably lashing out from a sense of vulnerability and fear.
The action is often abrupt and poorly depicted, and despite being set amongst a relatively small atoll, it’s frequently unclear what is happening where in relation to other locations. It can be appreciated that this kind of film must often contend with a minimal budget, but even so it never feels like it was shot more than a few metres from a green screen.
Killer Whale feels like it’s aiming to be a sequel to The Shallows, but gets caught up in its own plot contrivances. Tasks are shown to be impossible right up until the plot needs them to be completed with relative ease, and the rote dialogue continually reminds us of just how close the two leads are as friends, in a way that rarely comes across on screen. Most unforgivably, the viewer is always multiple steps ahead of the characters, with the most obvious tool available to them – a nearby waterproof phone – not being remembered for so long, despite being established with multiple scenes earlier in the film.
I realise I’ve been very negative throughout this review. I did not hate Killer Whale, but I must also acknowledge that I tend to appreciate these kinds of creature features more than most. So whilst I had a relatively good time with the film, I must also speculate that my enjoyment surely comes from the comfort I feel when watching people in peril at the fins of a huge aquatic beasty, and that this film has many, many ways in which it could be improved. If you enjoy a creature feature, this will likely suffice, but if you don’t, this won’t change any minds.
Killer Whale is available in the UK on digital download from 18th May 2026 through Plaion Pictures.