22 September 2016

THE REEF. (2010) 'THE BEST SHARK THRILLER SINCE JAWS' REVIEWED BY SANDRA HARRIS.




THE REEF. (2010) DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY ANDREW TRAUCKI. MUSIC BY RAFAEL MA. CINEMATOGRAPHY BY DANIEL ARDILLERY.
STARRING DAMIEN WALSHE-HOWLING, GYTON GRANTLEY, KIERAN DARCY-SMITH, ZOE NAYLOR AND ADRIENNE PICKERING.
REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

This is the second film by the guy who brought us BLACK WATER, the best and most effective crocodile horror film I've seen in my whole life. I'm thrilled to discover that it's the same director who did both movies. They're both brilliantly scary and similarly done in that there are no silly effects in either film, just real shocks and real terror.

I'm also gobsmacked to find out that BLACK WATER was actually someone's debut feature film. It's so frightening and so well-done that you'd expect it to be the product of a lifetime of film-making, if you know what I mean. It deserves to go down in cinema history as a creature-feature of some considerable note.

We'll gab about BLACK WATER some more another time, but for now let's take a look at THE REEF, probably the best shark attack movie since Steven Spielberg's 1975 masterpiece and, incidentally, debut feature film as well. It certainly seems as if movie-making geniuses are sometimes born overnight and don't need a lifetime of practice to be that good, haha. It's JAWS to which I was referring just now, by the way, as if you guys didn't know...!

Anyway, THE REEF is the story of five friends in their thirties who are sailing from Australia to Indonesia on a yacht which one of them is delivering to a customer. They have to sail through the titular barrier reef on their journey, and for a while the scenery is fantastic, the weather and the swimming is good and everyone's having a wonderful holiday.

Matt and Suzie are obviously very much in love. With each other, I mean.  Matt's sister Kate is still in love with dreamy Luke, from whom she was taking a 'break,' and Luke is clearly still holding a torch for Kate. 

They're all young-ish, attractive, healthy, sporty outdoorsy people, you know the type.
They'd be having little dinner parties in each others' apartments back on land and nattering ad infinitum about the best school districts for the sprogs they're thinking of having, haha.

They're nice people though, really, and likeable enough as opposed to flat-out irritating, you know, where you're rooting for them to die and stuff? I was actually quite sad when the shark... Ooops, I've said too much...!

The fifth member of the little quintet is Wayne, or Wazza, in true Aussie style, haha. He's Luke's crewman and he's a lovely chap who in no way deserves the sad lonely ending we assume he gets. What probably happens to Wazza is nearly the saddest part of the whole film, and that's saying something because a lot of tragic stuff happens in the film. Let's cut to the chase.

A boating accident sees the shocked quintet forced to make a horrible choice. Do they huddle together on the hull of their upturned yacht, waiting for it to inevitably sink or for themselves to die of dehydration, or do they try to swim for the nearest land mass, which is a good few miles away?

The ones who choose to swim for it have a big problem on their hands. Strictly speaking, of course, it's their legs which are in the most jeopardy as the group find themselves being stalked by a Great White shark. He doesn't go in all guns blazing though, this magnificent fourteen-footer who would have had old Quint from JAWS peeing his pants in excitement.

No, this cool-as-a-cucumber guy guy knows exactly where to find the petrified swimmers when he needs 'em, just like groceries all neatly stacked on a supermarket shelf, and he's gonna take his own sweet time picking them off. 

This is fantastic news for the viewers, who are glued to the edge of their seats with the delicious heart-stopping suspense of it all, but it's terrible news for the swimmers. Will anyone make it back to solid ground alive? It's looking highly dubious, my dear readers...

The acting is so realistic that, at times, you completely forget you're watching a film and start thinking it's real footage of an actual true event. The film is based on a true story, by the way, which makes it all the scarier to watch.

The dialogue is economical and there are no loud, shrieky Hollywood types screeching blue murder every time a nearby minnow releases gas from its nether regions. I hugely appreciate that fact. It's just real people, normal people, good solid actors who all do a good solid job of helping to put the heart crossways in you, as we say here in Ireland. 

The realistic shark footage is marvellous to watch too. Sharks are such beautiful majestic creatures. I bloody love them. Always have. I've got a bit of a thing for huge sea creatures, but not in the Troy McClure way. I totally don't sleep with the fishes, I swear to you...!

I must tell you, as well, that when I first saw this film about three years ago, I felt so enthusiastic about it that I left a message on the film's Facebook page congratulating the cast and crew on a job well done.

Within a day, someone on the page got back to me and thanked me very warmly for my good wishes. So, not only is this the best shark film since JAWS but the folks who made it are jolly nice peeps too, haha.

Check out THE REEF and BLACK WATER as well, maybe in a back-to-back monster movie marathon-type situation. I guarantee you that, after watching them both, you won't be sleeping with your legs hanging out of the bed any old how the way you usually do...

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.

Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO

 You can contact Sandra at:


http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com




















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