Jaws is a great movie, but it sure made people more afraid of sharks than they maybe would have been otherwise. Just about anything lurking in the murky depths of the ocean, which is scary as hell anyway, can make for great horror movie fare. But sharks, and specifically the Great White, have been at the forefront of nautical terror for now over 40 years. While movies like Sharknado and Sharktopus have rendered this terror a bit of a joke, the new film The Shallows is hoping to make the toothy leviathans the stuff of nightmares again.
It couldn’t possibly be a simpler conceit: Blake Lively is caught on a tiny rock not far from the shore of a secluded beach. She’s hurt. And a shark wants to eat her. That’s the premise, folks. But it looks as though director Jaume Collet-Serra is going to try to ratchet up as much tension as possible from that very straightforward set-up. Collet-Serra, it should be said, has the dubious honor of having directed absurdity-fests like Orphan and Non-Stop, so there’s definitely the possibility for ridiculousness.
This super short teaser looks pretty good, though, and it appears the effects will be more subtle. Maybe like that indie movie Open Water, which told a similar story. But even in Open Water, the characters had human company. The Shallows features just one woman alone and without help—kind of like if the opening night-swimming scene of Jaws was the whole movie. If Chrissy didn’t die immediately, that is. How can Blake MacGyver her way out of this situation? Will she use that seagull there next to her as some kind of stabbing tool?!
The Shallows will open on June 24. Gird your loins accordingly.
What do you think of Gravity, but with Sharks? Let us know in the comments below!
—
HT: Indiewire
Image: Sony
Kyle Anderson is the Weekend Editor and a film and TV critic for Nerdist.com. Follow him on Twitter!
