Not Coming to a Theater Near You

Open Water / USA / 2003

It is astonishing (and encouraging to b-horror movie fans out there) that this 80-minute, made-with-a-digital-video-camera, low-budget flick made its way into a sizeable number of theatres nationwide. I say astonishing, not because the film does not deserve to be seen, but because I find it hard to imagine that any movie moguls wading through the awkward, stilted-dialogue-rich opening scenes would have had enough interest to continue screening the picture and to actually consider distributing it.

But I suppose that’s why trailers were invented. And low budget or not, Open Water has one of the simplest, most effective trailers I’ve seen in awhile: Two people floating in the middle of the ocean, nary a glimpse of boat or land, shark fins gliding ominously through the waves. That’s it. Two people in the water. No masked killer lurking in the shadows, no prolonged torture scenes, no gratuitous violence. Just isolation, and a creeping dread of the briny deep.

As the story begins, we meet the vacationing couple, endure their idiotic conversations, and follow them out for some scuba diving. Bad dialogue aside, these opening scenes move along at a brisk enough pace, and serve to efficiently get our heroes off dry land and into the wide ocean. Soon enough, the pair is separated from their boat and cast adrift on the high seas. Then the movie takes off.

Idiotic banter becomes realistic bickering, as the lovers attempt to downplay the seriousness of their predicament by arguing over irrelevant details. A boat is glimpsed on the horizon and they convince themselves it’s only a matter of time before they’re picked up again. Hours pass and the slow, suffocating squeeze of despair takes hold. Daylight fades. The cold grows. The shark fins circle. And through it all, an intimate camera, hovering halfway above the sloshing waves, brings us face to face with the primal human fear of the unfathomable ocean, convincingly proving that cinematic success depends, not on money or technical wizardry, but on a simple, relatable, and horrifying premise.

by Thomas Scalzo | Source: Lions Gate Home Entertainment DVD
06 Jan 2006 3:02 PM | Submit Comment