The Shallows Review

<p>What constitutes a horror film&quest; Does it have anything to do with a connection to the characters within the film&quest; Should your characters have a certain amount of intelligence&quest; At what point do your scares become cheap&quest; Director <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm1429471&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;tt&lowbar;ov&lowbar;dr">Jaume Collet-Serra<&sol;a> seemed to wrestle with the question during every aspect of production on <em>The Shallows&period; <&sol;em>Collet-Serra hasn&&num;8217&semi;t ever proven himself as a director that can carry anything more than a <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm0515116&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;tt&lowbar;ov&lowbar;st&lowbar;sm">Blake Lively<&sol;a>-starring vehicle&period; Like a fourth-rate Alfred Hitchcock&comma; Collet-Serra works with a bare script to create something cheap and offensive to the senses&period; Everything may be beautiful&comma; but it only takes a look past the surface to realize how little is there&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Lively stars as medical student Nancy Adams&period; After her Mother passed away&comma; Adams decided to find the beach that her Mother surfed after she found out she was pregnant with Nancy&period; For whatever reason&comma; Collet-Serra uses half the frame as a mirror to the character&&num;8217&semi;s iPhone as an exposition device&period; Instead of pacing the backstory throughout the film&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s all laid bare at the beginning&period; This is to get it all out of the way so we can immediately care for the character before she&&num;8217&semi;s attacked by Jaws 2&period;0&period; She finds out her friend can&&num;8217&semi;t make it when she&&num;8217&semi;s already on the way and she has no one coming to pick her up when she&&num;8217&semi;s done&period; No one else is there and no one&&num;8217&semi;s on their way&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;109366" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-109366" style&equals;"width&colon; 1024px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-109366" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;06&sol;03133141&sol;MV5BMTUyODgzMDY2Ml5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNjg4NzIyOTE&percnt;40&period;&lowbar;V1&lowbar;SY1000&lowbar;CR0015001000&lowbar;AL&lowbar;-1024x683&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Shallows" width&equals;"1024" height&equals;"683" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-109366" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>The Shallows<&sol;em>&comma; Columbia Pictures&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I commend the one place where the film has patience and its waiting for the carnage to occur&period; Cinematographer <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm0554871&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;ttfc&lowbar;fc&lowbar;cr6">Flavio Labiano<&sol;a> takes some gorgeous landscape shots and a few gratuitous body shots of Lively while she surfs&period; Those shots help us seep in the environment and the mood the film is giving off&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s not long before <em>The Shallows <&sol;em>starts introducing random characters so you can know they will be killed later&period; A couple surfers here&comma; a seagull there&comma; Collet-Serra takes a little too long and introduces a few too many characters just to extend the festivities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s surprising to find Collet-Serra so stripped down for <em>The Shallows <&sol;em>considering his track record for excess&period; His filmography suggests that we would get an absurd&comma; insane and batshit film about a girl being hunted by a shark&period; The film could have used a lot more of that insanity&period; The director&&num;8217&semi;s talents don&&num;8217&semi;t blend well with the story this film is trying to tell&period; Ultimately a coming of age tale between Lively and a seagull&comma; <em>The Shallows <&sol;em>is so bare&comma; it shows how incredibly unsubtle it is&period; Among an overlong GoPro video message that attempts to show off Lively&&num;8217&semi;s acting abilities &lpar;please stop&rpar;&comma; her range stays the same throughout&period; That range doesn&&num;8217&semi;t particularly change throughout the film&comma; but she can cry&comma; so that&&num;8217&semi;s a bonus&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;109368" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-109368" style&equals;"width&colon; 1024px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-109368" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;06&sol;03133103&sol;MV5BMjEzNjUyMzEzMV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwOTg4NzIyOTE&percnt;40&period;&lowbar;V1&lowbar;SY1000&lowbar;CR0015001000&lowbar;AL&lowbar;-1024x683&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Shallows" width&equals;"1024" height&equals;"683" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-109368" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>The Shallows<&sol;em>&comma; Columbia Pictures&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Lively is here to anchor the film between all the jump scares that are occasionally clever&period; If the mood was as effective as some of the jump scares&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;d be writing a very different review&period; The scares felt cheap by the time a minute long long-shot held on the water as we just wait for something to pop us&period; It stops being clever and jumps into &&num;8220&semi;assholery&period;&&num;8221&semi; It&&num;8217&semi;s not good filmmaking&period; Collet-Serra has a long way to go before he gets to anywhere near good&period; You could defend <em>The Shallows <&sol;em>as some form of B-movie that doesn&&num;8217&semi;t deserve the hate&comma; but that&&num;8217&semi;s exactly why it deserves it&period; In a year of great genre exercises that didn&&num;8217&semi;t just subvert the genre&comma; but fulfilled it as well&comma; we deserve better as an audience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>The Shallows is produced by Columbia Pictures and is in theaters now<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;