Everything that can go wrong, does go wrong in the best horror
thrillers. “Storage 24” director
Johannes Roberts’ shark-swarming spectacle “47 Meters Down” (*** OUT OF ****) may
not be as entertaining as last summer’s delicious shark derring-do “The
Shallows.” Nevertheless, this hour and a
half epic will keep you poised on the edge of your seat as you gnaw your
knuckles in dread. Surprisingly enough, this
raw-edged thriller almost went straight-to-video. As deceptively simple and
straightforward as they come, “47 Meters Down” doesn’t pull any punches,
particularly with its surprise ending. Indeed, this is not your usual summer movie
where everything works out in the surf for the heroines. Although it doesn’t let anybody off the hook,
Roberts’ eighth big-screen directing endeavor holds its characters accountable
for their poor choices. Most summer
blockbusters serve up a delightful, guilt-free ending where all narrative
threads are neatly knotted and everybody lives happily-ever after. If you think
about it, “47 Meters Down” is the kind of movie that should chomp up summer
audiences. Mandy Moore and Claire Holt
are cast as older and younger sisters respectively, who decide to swim with
sharks to alleviate boredom. Ultimately,
they wind up like earlier western pioneers who tempted hostile Native Americans
and had to circle the wagons to fight them off.
Moore and Holt are the two primary characters, with several peripheral characters,
such as the crew of the boat they take out to see sharks. Otherwise, Moore and Holt try to work things
out for each other under circumstances that would terrible to endure
considering the predicament.
Happily, the premise of “47 Meters Down” is both simple and straightforward. Lisa (Mandy Moore of “License to Wed”) and Kate
(Claire Holt of “The Vampire Diaries”) are on a vacation in Mexico. Lisa’s boyfriend dumps her because their relationship
lacks spontaneity. Kate draws the withdrawn Lisa back out into the open, and they
date Louis (Yani Gellman of “Jason X”) and Benjamin (Santiago Segura of “Hand
of God”), a couple of local guys. Yani
and Benjamin tell the gals about a guy, Captain Taylor (Matthew Modine of “Full
Metal Jacket”), who offers an underwater shark sightseeing excursion. The gals
are confined to a shark cage just below the waterline to admire the awesome
majesty of the Great Whites. No sooner
have they climbed into the cage than one wants to take a picture of the other. Lisa takes an underwater snapshot camera from
Kate, but she accidentally drops it in the drink. The second the camera hits the hits the water,
a Great White shark appears as if conjured with its jaws agape, and the camera
vanishes into the shark’s gullet. Mind
you, British director Johannes Roberts had set up the situation before this
ominous accident with Yani and Benjamin hovering five meters below the surface in
the cage as Great Whites had circled them.
Nothing happened to the dudes. Initially,
everything goes well after Lisa loses the camera and Captain Taylor submerges
them five meters below the surface. Lisa
begins to have second thoughts and the girls have had enough of enough. Suddenly, something goes haywire and the winch
holding them suspended in the water breaks. Trapped in the cage, the two
sisters plunge to the bottom of the ocean.
No sooner has the cage slammed into the ocean floor than the whole wench
plummets atop the cage. Lisa and Kate
can communicate with each other because their diving masks are equipped with
microphones. Deep down as they are,
however, they cannot communicate with Taylor. Naturally, this is the point at
which the heroines behave like characters in a scary movie. Kate swims 40 meters up to communicate with
Captain Taylor. Repeatedly, Taylor warns
them to stay in the cage because sharks are swarming all over the place. Instead, Taylor says that he is sending one
of his crewmen, Javier (Chris Johnson of “xXx: State of the Union”), down to
give them replacement air tanks. Nevertheless,
Taylor warns that switching air tanks during a dive can induce nitrogen
narcosis which produce hallucinations.
During their time on the bottom, Kate proves either her bravery or her
stupidity. A shark almost munches her,
and she scrambles to take refuge in a nearby cave. Eventually, Lisa gets abandons the cage, and
she has a close encounter with an open-mouthed shark charging at her.
During one harrowing scene, Lisa and Kate find themselves in
the midst of a flotilla of sharks. Roberts
spends more time on creating suspense in “47 Meters Down” than dwelling on
blood and gore. Roberts is wise enough
not to wear out her welcome, and “47 Meters Down” clocks in at a trim 89
minutes with the action set almost entirely at sea. The first part of the action takes place on
land as Roberts and co-scenarist Ernest Riera get the girls to go out on a date
with two locals who intrigue them about the shark cage gimmick. Predictably, Lisa is too far timid to take
such a dare. Kate goads her older sister
into doing it so she can prove that she isn’t as dull as her former boyfriend has
claimed. The remainder of “47 Meters Down” occurs at sea. Of course, none of those Great Whites prowling
the depths where our damsels-in-distress await them are genuine predators. The CGI of the Great Whites is flawless, and “Stardust”
lenser Mark Silk’s cinematography is appropriately murky given the ocean depths
and inspires paranoia. Just when the
gals look like they are alone, the Great Whites materialize with cavernous jaws
ajar! Although several peripheral
characters inhabit this PG-13 epic, the action focuses most of its time on the
sisters. These sympathetic souls never get a break, and you will fear for them
as they deal with one setback after another.
Just remember, no matter what happens during “47 Meters Down,” you must
stay in your seat.
(Author’s note: if you enjoyed “47 Meters Down,” you should be
the 1971 documentary “Blue Water White Death.”)
