‘‘There’s ‘Something in the Water’, teen horror meets shark attack flick and to no surprise, the outcome is exactly what you think it would be.
Take a group of hapless teens and dump them in the middle of shark infested waters and you’ve got this movie. Quirky, hip and even at times amusing, with some decent practical effects (and some perhaps not quite as good CGI at times too!)
To elaborate slightly, the plot opens with a lesbian couple on the streets of London. Harassed by a local gang we see a fight erupt, the result of which understandably leads to some emotional trauma as the couple get a kicking. Fast forwards a brief passage of time we see the couple awkwardly reunited for the first time since the incident at the wedding of their mutual friend.
Cue some typical all girl raucous and we’re off.
Reminded for the 300th time that its all about being bad girls before the equally numerously referenced wedding, the ladies embark on a solo cruise to a desert island. Once on the beach things take a turn for the worse when one of their number gets their leg munched in the shallows by a shark.
Panicked, the group jump back onto their boat only to run around on some extruding coral. Boat sinking, their mate bleeding out and the sharks are circling.
The films first positive is that it just gets on with it. There is some back story, but its minimal, and before the girls exuberant wooing and cliched dialogue has time to grate one of them are dying. The practical effects on the initial shark attach are really good too and the wound is sufficiently bloody.
The acting is solid enough, and whilst not perhaps to my taste, the girls characters are somewhat relatable, if slightly underwritten.
As you’d expect much of the film centres around the girls being stranded in the middle of the ocean, and here we find the films best moments. The dialogue veers away from the cliché and allows the characters nuances to shine through generating some much-needed empathy, and at time some warm-humour. I’m not going to lie, for the sake of tension, there are some pretty daft decisions made, and it’s worth noting that the violence does dip, despite the threat mounting, but I wouldn’t say it detracts from the overall experience.
The cinematography is frankly stunning and there are some amazing landscape (well seascape) shots which really enhance the production values of the movie whilst crafting some organic atmosphere. All in all ‘Something in the Water’ is a pretty slickly produced movie from a technical perspective.
The sharks really don’t feature relentlessly, but when they do, they make enough of a splash to make the scenes fit for purpose. The film plays on all the ‘shark attack’ tropes almost sequentially. The circling fins, the almost elastic attraction to blood and of course the punch to the nose to counter the shark-charge.
As I’ve said already, the practical effects look good, the CGI sharks, perhaps not quite up there but they’re serviceable.
Overall, ‘Something in the Water’ is a familiar yet entertaining shark attack flick. It adds practically nothing to the genre, but like comfort food, familiarity sometimes is what you’re looking for. For younger audiences too, I’d say this could be a winner.
