THE REEF (2010)

THE REEF (2010)

Tagline: What you can't see ... can eat you!

(Drama, Floating, Sharks Will Eat Your Face Off) [R]

In this one, Luke has decided to take his friend Matt, and Matt’s girlfriend Suzie on a snorkeling excursion to a remote reef. He also decides to invite his ex-girlfriend Kate who also happens to be Matt’s sister. The boat they are on ends up capsizing after having the bottom of the boat deeply gashed. As a result, the boat starts to sink and Luke decides the group should head in the direction of Turtle Island which they had just visited. The problem is that they are nearly 10 miles away. The boat's captain Warren decides to stay behind with the sinking boat, but the rest venture out into the ocean using a cut in half boogie board to help keep them afloat. Meanwhile, a great white has encroached on the area and now the entire snorkeling party is in more danger than ever. 

First off, the vast majority of shark movies fall into the category of “horror”, but for me, very few actually garner the essence of horror like the original JAWS did in its day. Granted JAWS is still amazing, but I don’t think it has the cultural impact of keeping people off the beaches that it did when it came out. So when a movie comes out that really tries to harness the terror of a shark attack and feeling helpless it usually gets a ton of attention. THE REEF is based on a real shark attack that happened during the 1980s off the coast of Townsville in far northern Queensland, Australia. In fact, in Australia, shark attacks are well known. Queensland has the 4th highest number of shark attacks and the 3rd highest in New South Wales. The top two are South Africa and Volusia County, Florida. Adding to all of this, the movie actually uses real shark footage for all but “maybe” one scene where the shark touches the snorkelers.

The “real” shark footage is always good whenever we can get it, but my preference is always to see the shark out of the water whenever possible. Part of what makes a great shark movie is seeing a full shark attack. I am not saying it has to be gory, I really don’t like gore, but just at least see the shark bit the person. That is kind of the whole point of non-educational shark movies. THE REEF never really gets there. We do see a bunch of red water and a few people getting pulled underwater, but this movie is absent of “shark chomps person” shots. Even without that, the film does an amazing job of ratcheting up the intensity and the slow burn had me on the edge of my seat. 

Acting wise Zoe Naylor is just okay. She would go on to do some other films and TV till around 2018, then things kind of got cut off. Not really sure what happened after that. Gyton Grantley is good as Matt and I really liked his character. I haven’t seen any of his other films. Adrienne Pickering who plays Suzie is also pretty solid. Pickering is mostly known for the film KNOWING and she is still getting roles. Rounding out the top cast we get Damian Walshe-Howling who plays Luke. He does a solid job in this and is best known for the DC TV show “Titans”. 

We don’t see any part of a live shark until about 50 minutes into the movie. Unlike a lot of shark movies, we also don’t have the “shark attack”, “go boating or swim around”, “shark attack”, “end”, formula, but we do have all but the opening “shark attack”. So overall this is definitely formulaic in the “shark film” world even though it’s based on a true story. For me this was fine, I don’t mind slow burns but don’t expect a full-blown action-driven shark flick. 

Overall THE REEF gets a 4 out of 7. It’s a bit of a downer, but does the job for the more serious shark movie fans out there. 

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