‘Into the Deep’ review: Dir. Christian Sesma [Digital]
Steven Spielberg’s Jaws is often thought of as one of the greatest films ever made. The film made a generation terrified of the water and kickstarted the shark attack movie genre. Year after year since, the world has been flooded by a new intake of shark based stories that explore sharks in all manner of guises. Whilst there is a whole movement developing peculiar creations such as Shark Exorcist and Graveyard Shark, there are thankfully still more traditional approaches like Christian Sesma’s Into the Deep.
Whilst Into the Deep remains more traditional, it does still add a little bit of spice to the shark attack story as pleasure seekers, drugs, and pirates collide with the aquatic creature in open water. Jaws has one of the most iconic openings in film history, and although Into the Deep’s beginning is not to the same standard, the movie starts with a bang. A young Cassidy is playing in the sea with her father when suddenly a shark begins to circle them. Cassidy makes it back to her mother on the boat, but seconds after, she witnesses her father get killed by the shark. It’s a brutal way to start a film, but it is vital to see as it sets up Into the Deep’s protagonist Cassidy’s (Scout Taylor-Compton) traumatic backstory.
The story begins years later with Cassidy now a grown woman. Still plagued by nightmares, Cassidy is determined to confront her fears and agrees to a boat ride out to sea. However, her trauma surfaces once more after one of her diving party is bitten by a shark. As Cassidy and the rest of the boat’s crew try to help the victim, a group of pirates board and insist on their help in retrieving some drugs. At the same time as the hostage situation plays out, the water around them is infested with sharks – can Cassidy survive another swim with them?
By mixing the hostage angle in with the shark attacks, Into the Deep manages to set itself apart from some of the other ‘trapped at sea, surrounded by shark movies’. With the focus on the interplay between captors and captives, the sharks take something of a backseat, with Sesma keen to not necessarily portray the prehistoric beasts as the villain. That is not to say that they are all cute and cuddly, as they do make chum out of several of the cast of characters, but these are not the bloodthirsty sharks holding a grudge that has come to be expected. That neither dry land nor water is safe for Cassidy helps raise the stakes and keeps both the story and pace moving along swiftly.
Out of all the other shark films on the market, Into the Deep has the prestige of starring Jaws’ very own Richard Dreyfuss. The actor’s career has been synonymous with Jaws, and by proxy, sharks, and so it is exciting for fans to see him back in a shark movie. His character however, remains firmly on land, as Dreyfuss plays Cassidy’s grandfather Seamus. Through flashbacks, Seamus is seen helping a young Cassidy come to terms with her father’s grotesque demise. During these sequences he is seen training her to overcome her fears of both the ocean and what swells within it, which helps explain to the viewer exactly why Cassidy would venture back out despite her childhood trauma.
Into the Deep houses an important message about not letting fear define your life, and watching Cassidy reclaim herself is great to watch. As Cassidy, Scout Taylor-Compton communicates an array of strength, anxiety, and determination, and is an easy character for the audience to root for. Her performance captures the vulnerability and resilience of Cassidy and ensues that she is the character that captivates the audience. Unfortunately, those around her are not so lucky, with most being two-dimensional tropes who veer from undeveloped to overly exaggerated, creating a mismatch.
The action too is a little all over the place. The set pieces themselves are fine, they just lack consistency and never take the opportunity to push boundaries or try anything new. This is not necessarily a bad thing, not every film needs to try and reinvent a genre, but in playing it so safe, some of the potency of the events on scene are diminished. The overall result is a shark film that ticks all the required boxes without fully extending itself as well as it could.
Once Into the Deep has finished, do stick around for the end credits as Richard Dreyfuss returns to discuss his history and relationship with sharks. In the fifty years since Jaws, Dreyfuss has become fascinated by sharks and his passionate words over the end titles deserve to be heard, so please do let them play.
Into the Deep is available on Digital Platforms 27 January and DVD 3 February. Distributed by Signature Entertainment.
