The Reef: Stalked Evaluate

PLOT: A gaggle of ladies on a three-day kayaking and diving journey are menaced by a ravenous shark.

REVIEW: Twelve years in the past, author/director Andrew Traucki introduced us a shark thriller referred to as The Reef, a few group of 5 people who find themselves stranded at sea when the yacht they’re on hits a coral reef and sinks. That’s simply the beginning of their troubles, as then they discover themselves being began by a ravenous nice white shark that proceeds to eat them one after the other. Now Traucki is again with a sequel referred to as The Reef: Stalked – however provided that there aren’t any returning characters and no references to the earlier movie, that is actually a sequel in identify solely. You don’t have to have seen The Reef to get into the shark thrills of The Reef: Stalked.

This time round, Traucki introduces us to a bunch of ladies who take pleasure in getting collectively to go diving and spearfishing. This group contains Nic (Teressa Liane), Jodie (Ann Truong), Lisa (Kate Lister), and Nic’s sister Cath (Bridget Burt). Cath desires of accompanying her sister and associates on a visit that may contain three days straight of kayaking, diving, and fishing earlier than ending up at a 4 star resort. Sadly, Cath doesn’t reside to satisfy that dream. She’s drowned in her bathtub by her abusive husband at first of the film. 9 months later, Nic and her associates resolve to pay tribute to Cath by sticking to their trip plan. Moving into Cath’s place on the journey, to Nic’s shock, is her different sister, Annie (Saskia Archer).

The three days of kayaking has hardly even gotten began when the ladies resolve to cease for some diving…. and nearly instantly be a magnet for a shark. A shark that may proceed stalking them (thus the title) and making an attempt to assault them for the remainder of the movie. You need shark thrills? This film has an hour straight of shark thrills, as Nic and her cohorts strive the whole lot they will to get assist and/or attain land earlier than they change into the shark’s newest meal. And as is normally the case in films like this, the shark isn’t content material to eat only one particular person and go on its method. This insatiable fish isn’t going to be glad till it eats all of those individuals.

By giving the lead character Nic a tragic again story and a rocky relationship along with her surviving sister, Traucki made a commendable try to provide the film and its characters emotional depth. Nic has panic assaults whereas imagining what the ultimate moments of Cath’s life would have been like, and he or she and Annie have disagreements over how the shark state of affairs ought to be dealt with. However this actually simply comes off as window dressing and it’s unlikely that many viewers are going to get invested in what’s occurring within the characters’ hearts and minds. There’s a degree close to the tip of the movie the place Annie lashes out at Nic by saying “You don’t even know me!” and I needed to admit that I didn’t actually know her, both. Or any of the opposite characters. They’re simply right here to wrestle and attempt to escape from a relentless shark, they don’t make a lot of an impression.

Viewers are right here for the shark, and Traucki does deal with that component very effectively. A number of moments involving the shark – or the characters considering the shark might be swimming shut by – are legitimately suspenseful. Shark thrillers typically have some dodgy particular results on show, however fortunately there isn’t a lot of that in The Reef: Stalked. The entire shark footage seems to be of an actual shark. Generally the picture has been digitally manipulated to get the shark in a body that it wasn’t initially a part of, however that’s higher than the unhealthy CGI that may be present in different shark thrillers. Just one results shot that featured the shark transferring at tremendous velocity stood out as laughable to me.

Though I didn’t join with the characters as a lot as Traucki clearly wished viewers to, I used to be entertained by The Reef: Stalked. The shark was round a lot, the solid did effectively with the fabric they needed to work with, and there was some good suspense. So far as shark thrillers go, it is a middle-of-the-road entry. It’s not top-of-the-line I’ve seen, however I’ve additionally seen rather a lot worse. In case you really feel compelled to observe this form of film – and lots of people should be, as a result of we appear to get a number of shark thrillers yearly – you’ll most likely get some enjoyment out of watching this one.

RLJE Movies and Shudder are giving The Reef: Stalked a theatrical, digital, VOD, and streaming launch in North America on July 29th.