Open Water may not be a pristine or complex suspense thriller, but you’d be hard-pressed to find anything else as terrifyingly potent in such a tiny package.
Open Water (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:187
Fresh:134
Rotten:53
Average Rating:6.6/10
Consensus: A low budget thriller with some intense moments.
Runtime: 81 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Theatrical Release:Aug 6, 2004 Limited
Box Office: $30,500,882
Synopsis: Proving that the power of imagination is much more terrifying than what meets the eye, OPEN WATER is Chris Kentis's intensely realistic deep-sea drama, "based on true events." The film's leering... Proving that the power of imagination is much more terrifying than what meets the eye, OPEN WATER is Chris Kentis's intensely realistic deep-sea drama, "based on true events." The film's leering digital video camera allows viewers to float like shark-bait, stranded in the middle of the ocean with Susan and Daniel (Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis), a bickering married couple who have just been abandoned by their scuba-diving boat in the Caribbean. As the tension escalates between the troubled twosome--who are cold, tired, dehydrated, and more than a little scared--the tragedy of the situation is exacerbated by a series of very unfortunate conditions. While a current sweeps them far from where the boat left them, and deep dark clouds pass menacingly overhead, the sea-life just below the surface is clearly not of the friendly variety. Yes, those are real sharks, folks. Meanwhile, Daniel, who watched Shark Week on television, is no stranger to the perils at hand, and finds himself battling shock. Minutes pass like hours, with the light shifting on the water and the constant motion of the waves adding to this unfathomable nightmare. The shimmering blues of wide expanses of sea are offset by dazzling underwater photography, yet the mood remains bleak. And while no special effects, abrupt developments, or abrasive gore are present here, the film instills such fear that viewers will be frozen awaiting the surprising conclusion. A day at the beach will never be quite the same again. [More]
Starring: Blanchard Ryan, Daniel Travis, Saul Stein, Estelle Lau
Starring: Blanchard Ryan, Daniel Travis, Saul Stein, Estelle Lau, Michael E. Willimson, Christina Zenarro, Jon Charles
Director: Chris Kentis
Director: Chris Kentis
Producer: Laura Lau
Studio: Lions Gate Films
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Reviews for Open Water
I am never going in the water again! Open Water is one of the scariest movies of the year.
Digital video tale of two against nature has a certain B-movie charm, but it's easy to be more impressed than enthralled.
A gimmick and nothing more... No matter how daring it was to go into live waters with real sharks, it doesn’t ultimately help tell a story.
There are a hundred ways Open Water could have been a better movie, but ultimately you're not likely to forget it.
Should come with a pre-screening checklist: Tissue for sweaty palms, liquid for clenched throat, and oxygen mask for air. This is a panic-attack inducing 75 minutes of film!
What's ... fascinating is the extra step the movie takes to show how the couple is too shiftless and wrongheaded even to try and survive.
Plays like the opening scene from Jaws, only stretched out to feature length and not half as scary.
Will likely get the second wave of aquatic aficionados out of the water.
Open Water is not the terror masterpiece that many are claiming it to be.
A tiny movie about ocean fears that will flush that overrated The Blair Witch Project 20,000 leagues under the sea.
A nasty piece of work that effectively raises the creepiness bar ... but the premise is limiting.
An expertly made suspense thriller based on an actual incident, but on a visceral level it's about as much fun as watching someone pull the wings off a butterfly.
It's just two people, some sharks and a whole lot of ocean. Doesn't sound like much, but it proves more than enough to provide a taut, lonesome chill.
This minimalist thriller evokes some deep and primal fears, but it is ultimately too under-dramatized to provoke anything more intense than squirming discomfort.
Open Water is so deeply terrifying, so primal in its depiction of man at the mercy of nature, that watching it shakes you to the core.
An exercise in slow-building anxiety that never quite leads to genuine horror.
You can feel the water, stretching against an unsheltering sky, seep into your bones.
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