Review: Deep Blue Nightmare

Director: Jared Cohn

Screenplay: Mark Atkins

Year: 2021

Shark movies usually offer a good deal of pure fun and tension, for which I brought myself to watch this new proposal in the genre, although I never had great expectations of it. Once I saw the The Asylum logo in the initial credits, I internalized what awaited me. For those who don't know about this production house, The Asylum’s platform makes low-budget movies trying to ride on the back of some successful horror movie with a similar concept and name and betting that some people will get to their films by mistake. 

Three friends kayak to a new island formation for a photoshoot. On their way to the island, they are targeted and stalked by a great white shark until they manage to arrive at one of the islands. While they wait for help to come, the tide starts sinking the small sandbank where they found refuge and are forced to get back to the water, where the shark continues to roam.

In the vain of what distinguished The Asylum’s movie, “Deep Blue Nightmare'', which had already debuted under the name “Shark Season”, seeks to emulate some of the characteristics of shark movies, the clearer being “Deep Blue Sea” probably betting on the series recent rise in popularity after the release of “Deep Blue Sea 3”. However, this movie falls far from any of the movies in the beloved shark movie trilogy.

Something that quickly stands out from the first scenes is how horrible the acting is. This problem continues throughout the whole movie and makes it almost impossible to follow. Certainly, this will be enough for many viewers not to make it past the first 15 minutes, but those who make it will bump into a series of problems that will make them reevaluate the decision.

After seeing the horrible acting, I thought it would be the worst part of the movie, but no, there was still much to be seen. The next thing that stands out thanks to its awful quality is the CGI. Sure, it is not the worst CGI I’ve seen, but it doesn’t fall too far out either. The images seem to have been produced by someone who hadn’t had the slightest idea of how to do it using a computer from two decades ago, and instead of building suspense, they are laughable.

If these problems are not enough to keep you away, the script seems to have the purpose of changing your mind. The conversations are incredibly dull, and it looks like a child wrote them. For example, there are scenes where an enormous amount of time is put into explaining simple concepts as if they were unprecedented discoveries in science in a redundant fashion, and this is not even the worst problem on the script. 

“Deep Blue Nightmare”, or “Shark Season”, is a disgrace of a movie. There is absolutely nothing in it that makes it worth watching. I consider watching this movie a public service for all of the people I can spare from watching it. Seriously, it is the only thing that helps me keep my self-esteem high after watching such a horrible thing.