Thanks to Scout Taylor-Comptons strong performance, Into the Deep delivers as an entertaining ocean thriller that hits all the right notes, that keeps you hooked, with it only being hindered by some stilted dialogue— it remains a fun watch.
Off the coast of Madagascar, a young father and his daughter, Cassidy, share a playful swim until a looming shark attack shatters their idyllic moment. Traumatised by the incident, Cassidy (Scout Taylor-Compton) grows into adulthood, plagued by fear until her grandfather, Seamus (Richard Dreyfuss), an oceanography professor, takes her under his wing to conquer her demons. One day, she embarks on a dive expedition to Reunion Island, entangled with modern-day pirates and a vengeful great white shark. Forced to confront her deepest fears to survive, Cassidy must navigate treacherous waters, both physical and psychological, grappling with her past trauma while facing imminent danger.
What is pushed heavily as a shark movie, Into the Deep, works far better as a hostage thriller set in the open sea. The sharks in the film serve as a constant threat, increasing the danger for our hostages and reinforcing the idea that they have nowhere to go. It’s a solid premise, and for a direct-to-digital/DVD release, it is an entertaining thriller that ticks all the right boxes for what it is trying to do. If they had the budget for solid post-shark attack practical effects, this would be a surefire winner. What we get, though, is more than solid; for a film like this, that is what you want.
Scout Taylor-Compton is the obvious highlight of Into the Deep, where some of the cast struggle a tad with pulling off the right emotions in certain scenes, she takes it all in her stride, juggling the difficult task of playing a character who is petrified of her situation while also trying to make sure that she doesn’t lose control of herself. As she gets angrier at her situation, you feel and believe that Cassidy would try to have the self-assuredness to try and steer the pirates in a specific way to ensure her and her group’s survival. Others in the cast can’t quite pull that off as they remain quite one note in the performance. However, Taylor-Compton brings a more nuanced performance that helps elevate the entire film.
Equally, Stuart Townsend is loving it as the remorseless Daemon, bringing a bit of a Gary Oldman-esque still to his performance; you thoroughly hate him and hope for a shark-sized vengeance to come his way. Despite these performances, the one true letdown is the script. The dialogue, at times, almost hinders the cast and narrows their ability to give us characters with more to them. Additionally, the script struggles to juggle its two situations as well as it needs to. We have one part shark attack film and one part hostage thriller. At times, they sync up and work very well, but occasionally, it feels as if they get lost between each other. Which is a shame as the basic premise for the film is excellent.
The film has obvious budget constraints, including the sharks’ effects and the fact that our sinking boat never looks like sinking. Yet, you forgive these as there is more than enough charm and thrills within the film to hook you in. They utilise their underwater moments very well; in fact, some are quite marvellously shot as we see our cast struggle to complete the missions put onto them by the pirates. The shark moments may not wholly scare you, but they don’t distract from the tension that Christian Sesma is building, as we still have trouble with what is going on on the boat. The film is probably strongest when we are onboard the ships as we are never quite sure what the pirates are going to do with our group of tourists.
As this is mainly a story about Cassidy overcoming her trauma of what happened to her as a child, we get those flashbacks that utilise Richard Dreyfuss. Between working with young Cassidy (Quinn P Hensley), we get to see how life has been for Cassidy and use what she was taught to try and overcome her situation in the ocean amongst the animals that killed her father. These moments could easily distract us from the hostage situation on the boat, but they actually help us root and care for Cassidy even more.
Speaking of Dreyfuss, stick around for the credits, where he gives an impassioned speech about the importance of sharks in our ecosystem. Into the Deep is a solid thriller that will hit the right notes for those who love thrillers with a little shark twist.
★★★
Into the Deep is available on Digital Platforms 27 January and DVD 3 February. Distributed by Signature Entertainment
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