Review of Open Water

Absolutely terrifying. Open Water is a gripping tale about what happens when things go completely, terribly, cruelly, wrong. Like, "how can there be a God in the universe" wrong. Everything about this film grabbed my attention-- from the amatuer production value and the none-the-less interesting and highly-skilled camera work, to the convincing, natural-feeling performances, to the growing sense of menace and hopelessness. The human survival instinct element of this film creates immense feelings of tension, sympathy, and dread for the stranded couple, and really hi-jacks the viewer in a visceral way. Before long we have more impending crisis on hand than you can shake a bang-stick at. Dehydration, hypothermia, exhaustion, mental breakdown, muscle cramps/failure, and, oh yeah, hungry mouths full of razor blades circling round and round. Nearly everything in this movie works. Finally, I tried really hard to recommend this film without once mentioning the immense aesthetic appeal of the lovely leading-lady (Blanchard Ryan), but it seems she has the kind of appeal that insists on being mentioned.