[MatthewLouwrens]

Excellent movie.
I saw it at the New Zealand Film Festival. First few minutes I really disliked the film. The digital camera was not good at all (it seemed almost as thought it was shot on consumer grade digital video) and initially it seemed like the director was going for strange arty angles, and was just self-conscious about it.
Then there is the completely excessive and unnecessary nude scene for the (admittedly attractive) female.

But once they get out into the water, I was just caught up into the film. While the digital video look remained an irritation in the underwater sequences (which would have looked incredible), the whole story of these two people drifting in the water was incredible. Not a lot of actual full on scares, but a hell of a lot of intense suspense.

Definitely worth seeing.

I really am amazed at how they filmed it, though.

[Tim O.]

Just got back from Open Water, and I must say my friends and I were mightily dissappointed. I did not find the film especially tense or scary, in fact it was flat-out dull at times. It's basically two uninteresting charcters floating in the water bickering and flipping out while sharks swim around.

Chirs Kentis' direction drove me crazy - why did he shoot it all on a DV cam (which looks pretty bad blown up on a big screen) when he's trying to structure the movie as a narrative story? It would make sense for a docudrama, but its obvious Kentis doesn't want that.

This and The Village have been the two biggest disappointments so far this summer.

[Mike.B]

I saw this last night with my wife. I have been looking forward to this for quite some time, so I had a lot of expectations, and I wasn't disappointed in the least.

A great little film, with some truly terrifying moments. Most of the audience that I saw this with (fairly large theater, about 85-90% full) jumped at a few scenes. The acting, while not really Oscar quality, was decent and much better than I expected. A few truly great camera shots. And I was quite pleased with the ending, although I'm sure a few people didn't like it. This certainly isn't an all-out horror picture (which I'm sure some people were expecting) but there is some geniune suspense, and the tension between the husband and wife is very believable.

Overall highly recommended. I give it an A-.

[Patrick Sun]

Given the setup of how this scenario could happen (2 people being stuck in the middle of the ocean and left behind by their deep water diving boat tour), I wasn't all that impressed with how this film unravelled itself, though the predictable finger-pointing between the boyfriend and girlfriend as to how they got themselves into this predicament did lend itself to some amusing verbal jabs. Perhaps I needed some dramamine before viewing this film too.

Anyhow, I recommend as a rental at best.

I give it 2 stars or a grade of C.

[Robert Crawford]

This thread is now the Official Review Thread for "Open Water". Please post all HTF member reviews in this thread.

Any other comments, links to other reviews, or discussion items will be deleted from this thread without warning!

If you need to discuss those type of issues then I have designated an Official Discussion Thread.



Crawdaddy

[RafaelB]

I have to agree that the movie, which I was looking forward to as a Hichcock-ian-type thriller/suspense piece in the "Jaws" vein, was extremely disappointing in the last minutes of the film.

The first 60 mintues or so do build up a nice sense of terror and those sharks were amazingly close to the actors but I left the theatre wanting my money back. This wasn't as scary as Blair Witch (well, the first time anyways) and it didn't have any good points to make a la 28 Days Later.

I am aware that, the experience this was based on

Spoiler:

the people were never found

but, to me it just deflated like a ballon.

Rafael.

[Dave Hackman]

Well to me this isn’t really a movie just an educational tape for scuba divers. The high point of this movie has to be the shirtless scene of Blanchard Ryan in bed while on vacation. A close second would be the shot of Blanchard Ryan on the scuba boat busting through her diving suit.

Acting, I guess it was good, as boring as the story was, I did believe that they were lost at sea and that they went to the bathroom in the ocean. Sound, perfect for those with only a center channel speaker. Picture is camcorder quality.

This is a direct to library release that somehow made it into the theater.

Avoid this movie if you are emotionally/financially unable to handle a bad movie experience.

No rating.


P.S.

There is additional footage shown as the credits begin to role.

[Matt Stone]

Hmmm, I'm a little split on this one. One one hand, it's a decent story told successfully, and on the other it isn't very scary. That being said, it is very bleak and depressing. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

I guess my main beef is how hard it is to categorize this film. At times it's comedic, at times it's educational, and at times it's just downright sad. Unlike other cross-genre films (let's say Donnie Darko for example), this one doesn't really transcend anything...it just kind of meanders.

Definitely a mixed bag.

**½/****

[Edwin Pereyra]

Chris Kentis’ Open Water is a minimalist dramatic thriller that draws its sensibilities and effectiveness from the performances of its two leads, Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis, and dialogue that is natural and thoughtful under the tragic and harrowing predicament the two characters end up in.

Made for a mere $130,000, it doesn’t rely on special effects, cheap thrills, and a bombastic soundtrack that crescendos every time something bad is about to happen. Instead, it is a tragedy that evokes fears of the unknown, dying, isolation, the need to blame, and hopelessness.

~Edwin