Dead in the Water

There are great creature/alien movies: Everything from Alien to The Thing. And then there's this. But, I like Sci-Fi's movies...they are just the thing when I just want to veg or otherwise occupy my time while doing other things, with something on in the background. Nothing new here except an all-female crew. Basically clueless crew gets into trouble of their own making, an alien/creature attacks, the make bad decisions and turn on each other. Regular cast of characters playing the roles we know so well, weakling, survivalist, martyr. Completely formulaic. On the plus side, there was very minimal CGI; most of it was 'live action'.

Kill me. Kill yourselves. End this.

Although the opening scene with the "Amphitrite" (a kind of fishing boat) traveling across the ocean looked really cheap in terms of "special effects", the rest of the film wasn't so bad. The ocean scene really looked as if it was a toy boat filmed in a bathtub. But besides this, don't expect extraordinary things. The acting was sometimes disappointing and felt amateurish. And the story itself is sort of "Alien" on the ocean instead of somewhere on a planet in a galaxy far, far away. Especially the fact that it's a "SyFy Original" made me shudder a bit. I like low-budget and indie films, but "SyFy" films don't excel when it comes to originality. And even though it had a real low budget feeling at certain moments, there were also a number of positive things to be found.

The most striking thing about the film is that the crew only consists of women. Maybe this fits in with the "MeToo" atmosphere of today, but a little male support on this ship would have been welcome. Even if it was just to tighten a bolt here and there, or force a steel door. But I have to admit that this club of Greenpeace militants could stand their ground. Their determination is admirable. That was noticeable during the pursuit of a fishing boat, fishing illegally in these parts of the world. The brash way Gwen (Bianca Simone Mannie) whips the old sloop across the ocean, isn't only bad for Michelle's stomach (Amy Louise Wilson), but it's also not so good for the coughing engine. The result is a failing engine while a storm front is coming their way. And a ship without a motor in the center of a storm is doomed to disappear to the seabed. And as icing on the cake, Michelle thinks she has seen a drowning man. And that man appears to be a kind of Trojan horse. Because, before they fully realize it, there's a parasitic creature that slithers over the ship through all possible escape routes.

As I said before, the movie isn't really original and borrows a lot from other well-known films such as "The Thing" or "Life". But it's mainly the film "Alien" you think about while watching certain scenes. If you know the "facehugger" phenomenon, you understand what I mean. The main problem of this film is the quality fluctuations. There are excellent special effects and next, you'll see effects that are completely worthless. And it alternates regularly. For example, I found the autopsy scene extremely successful. And the next moment the organism looks like withered seaweed that glides around and sticks to windows. But fortunately, it wasn't of the same level as those ocean waves.

The same for the acting. The seven female crew members really convinced me at certain moments. At other times it came across as implausible. Maybe it was due to the limited freedom of movement. At a certain moment, it seemed as if they were constantly running from the control cabin to the engine room. On the other hand, this limitation makes it fairly claustrophobic. It's certainly exciting enough at certain times. Such a creepy atmosphere where people know that danger can strike from every corner. So if you like movies with murderous organisms, then you will like this SyFy movie. However, don't be fooled by the film poster. It is not a huge blubbery creature like I thought from the beginning. The illustration is cleverly put together.

Bunch of girls on a ship chasing naughty illegal Chinese fishermen get themselves into a tizzy when the engine claps out.

With no men on board to help they are left to scream and panic. Part Alien part Descent part lots of things.

Not very good. Acting just about passable. Story pretty pathetic. They should have known to take a man along. Bruce Willis would have solved their problems in the first act with his brute strength and intelligence but sadly he was not on board.

Had a couple of good ideas but in the end was not really much of anything. Passable if you are bored on a wet Sunday afternoon.

I don't know if there are crews made up of only women, but certainly this is the most original element of the film: moreover the girls are cute and nice.

That this atmosphere is destroyed by a male body could perhaps be a feminist suggestion, almost like saying "we were better off alone".

And the nocturnal atmosphere is well rendered.

But in the initial part there is a heavy ellipse (not seen when the three girls return to the ship and carry the body) and the special effects are sometimes repulsive.

Furthermore, the director interrupts too often with shots of the boat in the storm.

This had a fair amount of atmosphere for the first hour and was well crafted with the budget. Reviews are very skewed and unfair these days with people rating this a 1 which means it is the worst movie you have ever seen...really?

No to be fair this is at least a 5/10 as I always try and base my reviews on the acting and budget as well as all the other things that make up a movie and to be fair the acting was not that bad and the atmosphere, model ship and wave effects were pretty convincing apart from when they were actually on the ship and it was obvious someone was spraying with a hose lol but that is something one should be used to with low budget horror films and unlike most Scifi channel productions this one comes out on top of the usual dross.

The only part where it was let down was with the creature itself although i did like the use of THE STRAIN wispy tendril effects used on many other movies like THE SAND and other horrors as it does have a rather sinister and scary vibe going on. It fails mostly on the lack of tension towards the last half of the film and like most low budgeters these days it seems to run out of steam mid way to the end.

All in all a decent nights viewing and much better than most of the nonsense I have watched lately so gets a fair slightly above average 5.5/10 from me!