The Reef

Watched this on Netflix. Really good low budget Shark movie that sits above all other shark flicks except Jaws (1975). The direction and pace of this film is superb with lots of suspense and the acting from all the cast is great, I actually cared for the characters, not something I often feel! Big thumbs up.

Andrew Traucki director of croc flick Black Water (2007)  hones his skills in this tense shark flick that makes Open Water look like Open season.

The story is simple, a boat becomes wrecked, and all but one of a group of five friends try to swim their way across the reef to a small island.

It's well filmed with no dodgy special effects in sight. The script is natural and is not forced or cheesy, the hand held camera work is effective and not a shaky mess. This is no low budget schlock. It's taught film making, wonderfully shot with some fantastic edge of the seat primal fear, courtesy of a real Great White Shark.

It's no Jaws, but as a basic survival film it works a treat. Shark lovers like myself will eat this up.

Following in the wake of the popular "Jaws" movies, there have been a recent wave of these shark survival/lost at sea movies around. And "The Reef" is actually one of the better movies in the genre.

The story is pretty easy to follow, a yacht gets capsized and starts to sink, and a group of people decide to swim for an island. Well, given the choice of being left on a sinking boat caught in the currents or taking your chances and swimming to land, well the choice is fairly obvious.

Anyway, what makes this movie stand out from others like "Adrift" and "Open Water" is that there is much more shark time, and you actually get to see the shark in good views. And also, somehow you start to, in an odd way, cheer on when you see the shark, because the movie is constantly building up suspense and thrills, and you just want these to peak. And there are some nice peaks to these thrills, trust me. I am not going to ruin anything and say what it is, but I liked it.

I think the movie captured human nature when caught in a hopeless situation and when people start having to respond to the chaos around them. The dialogue was good and the actors portrayed their characters very good and in very believable manners.

However, what puzzles me was that it would be the same shark that is stalking the people throughout the movie. That seems very weird. And also, like someone else pointed out, what was up with the constant taking off and putting on the goggles that Luke was doing? That made no sense at all.

But all in all, "The Reef" is definitely worth your time, especially if you like shark movies, or movies that tear on the human psyche.

I think this film highlights decisions that people have to make in life death situations. The isolation of being in the ocean with miles of the unknown below where you swim, where currents change and waves are constantly battering against you is everyone's worst nightmare and then of course comes sharks. There was a lot of tension in this film and given the small cast they were all excellent in their roles and were very convincing. Nothing in the film felt fake and of course the footage of the sharks were real. This film is well worth a watch.

The Reef is a good film it works the way a true thriller should, it doesn't reveal its hand all at once but instead builds and builds.

The characters are well played by a great Aussie cast all the actors are very believable and likable. Unlike Open Water in The Reef you do get to see a shark in fact its a very big and dangerous shark. The shark parts of the film are handle extremely well.

Based on a true event, The Reef feels very real. This sense of reality makes this shark film scary indeed it's what makes it stand above most other shark films. For me it sits somewhere between Open Water and Jaws.

Definitely worth checking out.