Something in the Water (2024) User Reviews

Standard fare.

[iamtherobotman · 3/10 · 3 May 2024]

Once you've seen one film about people being stranded at sea, surrounded by Sharks, you've seen them all, unfortunately. There's very little can be done with the sub genre, which makes you wonder why these films keep getting made.

The acting wasn't bad, the script and plot were lacking though. At times it was all too obvious that this was being filmed in shallow water, as not only could you see the seabed, but one of the actors (the annoying character who arranged this excursion), wasn't dipping low enough in the water, meaning the vast majority of the times, her shoulders were fully exposed out of the water, something which quite obviously would never happen.

This was so reminiscent of other films. I got definite 'The Descent' vibes from the character types. The one who set up the excursion was the 'Juno' character. The rebel without a clue, who sets up a trip without taking the appropriate safety precautions, the main protagonist was 'Sarah'. The one who had suffered in the past and was now on a redemption arc and is thorough in everything she does...

It's not an awful film to be honest, but it's just a copy paste of many other films which have gone before.

Here we go again

[agfw-282-778003 · 4/10 · 4 May 2024]

Surly if your a film maker you would have watched other films of this ilk. Either because you like those sort of movies and it inspired you to try something different or you've done some research by watching or reading stories about being stranded with sharks. But alas it's the same old trope.

To be honest, it's fairly limited using this sub-genre. But with some clever thinking you could add some twists or tricks and you could make it a bit more interesting. For example they did have some basic equipment that they could have used in a clever way, but it is quickly forgotten and never mentioned or used again.

The research on the behaviour of sharks is wholly inadequate and inaccurate. Again, with a bit of thinking you could have applied real world experiences and observations in to the story, but nothing.

This movie ended up being a bit of a.

Global warming, tick, diversity, tick..

[destiny_west · 4/10 · 4 May 2024]

There have been very few and far between good shark films. Let's face it, everyone wishes they made Jaws. But here I was sitting down to watch another, hoping at least someone would get eaten this time, unlike The Reef 2. Right from the start this film is filled with stuff that seems very unnecessary. We get it, you are trying to have character development, but for me, it was just like reading the food menu for the shark. When it came to the funding they read the quota list and ticked every box twice, let's mention global warming, rubbish in the ocean, make our lead characters lesbians, etc.. etc.. There is nothing wrong with making a film diverse, but when you are so blatant to the point that you are checking boxes it does have you on the side of the shark. Who is going to get killed first? It was like the Spice Girls on vacation. The acting was over the top, camera work was shaky. It was good to see the kills, I thought the whole bride friend sacrificing her own life was a bit ridiculous, they hadn't been at sea for days. It was like a case of The floating piece of ship from the Titanic and rose again. I am sure they could have somehow got the life vest around them both for support. Not the best shark movie, not the worst from the past few years. Far better than The Reef 2 and Requiem.

Personally, I was rooting for the shark

[stevelivesey-37183 · 1/10 · 4 May 2024]

Ridiculous premise from the outset.

It is like an Enid Blyton novel, 'Five Diverse Babes Go lesbian Relationship Counselling At Sea'. What could possibly go wrong?

Obviously, the film is low budget and in this case, it shows.

The direction is basic. The script divests you of feeling for the protagonists whose characterisation is quite two dimensional.. The plot is ridiculous and written with stupid characters making stupid decisions and written by people who have no idea about shark behaviour.

Although I did say it was low budget there are some drone and cityscape establishing shots but I have no idea what relevance they have to the main part of the story.

'I can't pee, if you are looking at me'.......they are all stranded in the water at sea. Laugh out loud funny. Very nearly 'Showgirls, so bad it's good' bad.

Unless you fly or are invincible, metric tons of salty and fresh H2O are bad for you

[cjonesas · 5/10 · 4 May 2024]

A sad, incomplete, generic, gripping and semi-entertaining shark-the-hated-species production with LGB-woke themes that is not made horrificly bad.

It is not awful, as always has very strong illogical points and "needed" to be done best as a 6-part series with different people and very different outcomes as the number of victims.

As long as they stick to the old formula with increasing low budgets, they won't be successful.

The acting and the emotions were quite good for such a movie, nothing to complain about, the sharks looked like bull sharks which are very aggressive and opportunistic, even in the middle of the ocean and the result of course not bright. None of them would have survived, especially Meg and the duo that trailed her with turbo fins and tails.

In shark movies, I'm never satisfied, never root for any shark and wonder what if orcas came to the rescue. Never saw that in any entertainment and would very much like to watch a thriller with the trio humans-sharks-orcas with completely unpredictable outcomes.

• Screenplay/storyline/plots: 4
• Production value/impact: 5.5
• Development: 6
• Realism: 6.5
• Entertainment: 6
• Acting: 6
• Filming/photography/cinematography: 7
• VFX: 6.5
• Music/score/sound: 4.5
• Depth: 4
• Logic: 1.5
• Flow: 4.5
• Thriller/drama: 4.5
• Ending: 4.

A survival film on water

[noushasaidi · 3/10 · 4 May 2024]

"Something in the Water" is an incomplete emulation of classical survival movies, featuring recurrent scenes typically set in forests or deserts. The struggle against nature, the burden of carrying an injured companion, moments of futile hope, and the gradual reduction of the group's numbers are prevalent themes, effectively employed in "Something in the Water."

Despite its beautiful location of filming, impressive underwater and helicopter shots, and strong performances by the actors, the film remains somewhat unbelievable. While in some small parts of the film, audiences can engage with its thrilling scenes, but these few moments are repetitive and boring.

While the film aims for a feminine perspective, even with incorporating contemporary sexual clichés such as homosexuality and dialogues concerning girlish tendencies, the screenplay fails to meaningfully contribute to this goal. The story's trajectory would remain largely unchanged if male characters were substituted for the five female leads.

Waste of Time

[ahmedtonmoy-48685 · 1/10 · 5 May 2024]

Watching this movie was a waste of time . The writer and director should retire .I AM QUITE SURE the write of this movie is not passionate about movie writing , passionate people cant write this type of effortless writing . Again i want to request please dont waste our time dont release anything new . I am not gonna complain about the cast , because without a story how can someone act . And one more thing the fist girl who die look at his cut , only this movie writer can tell the world what kind of shark bite like this :v bro its a shark not a piranha please buy a brain if you dont have one . Dont destroy investors money.

Generic, but entertaining...

[paul_haakonsen · 6/10 · 4 May 2024]

When I stumbled upon this 2024 thriller titled "Something In the Water" by random chance here in 2024, of course I opted to sit down and watch it. First of all, it was movie that I hadn't already watched, much less actually heard about. And the fact that it was a shark movie was just some sweet icing on the cake, because there is just something entertaining about shark attack movies.

I had zero expectations to writer Cat Clarke and director Hayley Easton Street, so they had every opportunity to entertain and impress me with this movie.

The storyline was actually okay. Sure, I mean, this has all been done and seen before in other similar shark movies, so it wasn't as if writer Cat Clarke was reinventing the shark attack movie genre here. But on the plus side, if you enjoy traditional shark attack movies with young people marooned at sea, then "Something In the Water" should prove entertaining for you. I have to say that I was adequately entertained throughout the course of the movie.

I wasn't familiar with a single actress on the cast list, but I found the acting performances to be adequate. Sure, it wasn't stellar award-winning performances, but then again, I wasn't expecting such from a movie about girls being marooned at sea with a shark circling about. But all in all, fair acting performances for a movie such as this.

A bit of a nice pun, actually, that the name of the character played by leading actress Hiftu Quasem was Meg, which is also a shortened name for the Megalodon shark.

The shark was actually nicely made and did come off as being real and believeable enough, which did help add to the overall impression and enjoyment of the movie. It was definitely a good thing that the shark wasn't horrible CGI leftovers from the 1990s, like in so many other shark attack movies.

Director Hayley Easton Street delivered a wholesome movie that proved to be entertaining. While it certainly was no "Jaws", then "Something In the Water" actually is enjoyable for single viewing if you enjoy shark movies. I have to say, though, that there is zero replay value to the movie, as the script just doesn't have the contents to support more than a single viewing.

All in all an enjoyable movie. My rating of "Something In the Water" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Don't leave us

[nogodnomasters · 2/10 · 14 May 2024]

PLOT SPOILER (if possible) Kayla (Natalie Mitson) and Meg (Hiftu Quasem) are an item. Walking through the streets at night they encounter a gang of girls who make a disparaging word (the 'D" word) about their sexual orientation. Kayla flips them off and Meg gets beaten to near death. Elizabeth (Lauren Lyle) is getting married on a tropical island somewhere and all her besties come to the island including Kayla and Meg who have parted under ugly terms. Cam (Nicole Rieko Setsuko) playing relationship expert decides it would be best to strand the two on an island and let them work things out. Then it is swimming in the water, shark bites, taking the boat for help, hitting a low reef, boat sinks, and five shark snacks bobbing in the water. Yada Yada Yada.

These shark films all blend together. There is always a back story of the people in the water in an attempt to make them different. Since the shark is the selling point of the film, characterization is secondary and done poorly. There are exceptions. This one was not one.

Guide: F-word. No sex, no nudity.

Beware The Shark

[bettyshields-43289 · 6/10 · 10 May 2024]

I liked this film, thought the acting was good and the overall production was strong for an indie. There was a bit of predictability when it came to how and why but I think the overall story makes up for it. I was drawn in by the friendship and how everything unravels fairly quickly and how the name of the game becomes survival. There's a lot to like about this film and the dance between storyline and imminent danger of a predator lurking in the water. It's definitely worth watching if you're a fan of shark movies and doesn't go all in on bad cgi shark moments. It handles tension and build up really well and delivers ultimately.

Smart Stories Require Smart Decisions

[rasbenek-90610 · 2/10 · 7 May 2024]

Where to start? Okay just a handful of story observations to keep it brief..... ish.

With the ever increasing access of audiences to information it is behoven upon storytellers to ensure that anything that is grounded in a reality (hence why scifi is so entertaining, suspending disbelief at the idea that anything, it seems, is possible) is at least as factually, technically, environmentally, or historically accurate as possible. Research is key, and I would say critical, to keep audiences engaged. The natural world is one we can access readily through documentaries at the least, and the presentation of any number of hugely knowledgeable and well regarded naturalists. Heck, David Attenborough's Blue Planet is a prime example. There is then, zero excuse, to play fast and loose with a storys animal antagonist - in its size, habitats, hunting behaviour, or more importantly distribution. Why do these movies, generally not necessarily in this example, insist in placing GWs (not that this is what it was supposed to be as it ambiguous, but damned big) at the centre of their stories when they shouldn't even be inhabiting the locations. Yes, I get that they are the ultimate representation of our fears but frankly there are plenty of other sharks out there, and more appropriate to this story's location, that I wouldn't want to meet. For any fish out of water story a big shark regardless of type would instil fear - and generate suspense for the viewer. Tigers can get to 15ft or so, Gt Hammerheads to ad much as 20ft - the former known to have killed and consumed humans, the latter big enough to be fatally dangerous to. When was the last shark movie to feature one of them? Answer, never. Even the 2010 film The Reef substituted a Tiger with a GW when the actual story upon which it was loosely based had a commercial fishing vessel's crew facing a stalking Tiger of immense size off Townsville. The propensity for filmmakers to simply default to predictability is what, in part at least, makes for a tedious, generic, and derivative story world - you're already on the way to losing your audience before the first act has even finished. And that doesn't help the proliferation of genre tropes that always seem to collapse into cliche (phone signals, no one knows where we are, impossibly large animal with a dorsal fin preposterously oversized etc etc) . In this instance too the character types were obvious and predictable, albeit with an obvious and frankly on the nose attempt to make it current, diverse, and relevant. Desicisions based on knowledge or foreshadowing were non existant - a comprehensive disregard or ignorance for common sense, acceptable with youngsters or late teens, but just not acceptable for twenty-somethings who should be more worldly wise if for no other reason than their access to knowledge and information. Girls I would suggest particularly are all about safety in numbers. It's something they grow up to appreciate. Less so with the machismo of guys. Why then would you let one person swim off in a direction you dont know actually is landfall, or north, or help?! Especially after you've seen the very 'something' of the title you know is out there, waiting, curious, or just plain stalking you, demolish your dead friend. It's preposterous logic. Until writers can account for their decisions in the story, you can't expect audiences to buy into the decisions of the characters with any degree of credibility. Lose credibity and you lose your audience. Credibility is found is good research, smart story choices, and characters who defer to knowledge, not contrivance, in order to be powerful even when nature is doing everything it can to thwart your efforts to survive.

Survival Aspect

[D3ViN · 4/10 · 5 May 2024]

For Shore(sure) the survival aspect of this movie is just way off kilter. The Many holes in the boat left just as many holes in factual evidence that sharks don't attack blood or urine unless the water is chummed with dead stinky fish. Does that mean they all were on their period at the same time? One truth is told do not tread water flailing around like a fish or a shark will bite. Also know your survival techniques of tying a tourniquet. I Suffer from Thellassephobia the fear of the ocean so this did scare me but it's just another unresearched movie with copied things from other movies like "punch it in the nose" from The Beach starring Leo Dicaprio. I guess uncharted waters you can write anything you want.

Something deep underwater

[MB-reviewer185 · 3/10 · 15 May 2024]

Before deciding to watch this, I thought this just looked like another forgettable shark movie on VOD that has a simple premise that can be done the right way or the wrong way, so I was not expecting much going into this movie; after watching it, I can say that I was right to think it looked generic, because this film was just too mediocre to stand out as a good shark movie. The film Something in the Water (2024) has bad characters, a pointless plotline mixed in with the actual premise, ok looking cinematography, bad dialogue, and standard performances from the actors who are given bad direction in their scenes; the only thing that was fine was how they showed the shark, which was by keeping him hidden for most of the film until the end, but what we mostly see is its dorsal fin sticking out of the water or some quick side or overhead shots of it when it is swimming around the characters.

I did not like any of the characters, that is mostly because they were annoying and unlikable, with them arguing about everything and doing/saying the dumbest things in their current situation; there was one girl who had her wedding coming up, and she would not shut up about how she couldn't do certain things and why she should not die in this current situation, along with another one of the girls who I hated and wanted her to get eaten by the shark. There is a girlfriend relationship with two of the girls in the group that involves an event that occurred to have them broken up and having them get back together again, other than the fact that they get back together quickly, but this whole relationship plotline could have been taken out and you would not miss anything. Lastly, since I did not care about anyone in this movie, I was just waiting for the shark to come and attack them because of the stupid things they do, from dropping their only weapon to having blood in the water to draw the shark right where you are on the water.

What I liked a little bit was that the shark in the movie does not show itself fully that much, but instead we just see its dorsal fin sticking out of the water in subtle ways, like seeing it a little bit in the background or foreground until we see it fully by the end showing it with obvious CGI effects; the cinematography was competent enough where there were ok shots of above and under the water, with there being only one entertaining moment. The way the shark kills off the characters are not that great, with it just picking them off one by one in bland ways that are not entertaining to watch, along with it feeling slow at times with how long it takes the shark to attack and how it gets annoying watching them make dumb decisions that can lead to them getting killed; also, I will add that the shark would be attacking them at least nonstop since these people are in open water in the middle of nowhere, it did not feel realistic when it came to thinking about how a premise like this works.

The film Something in the Water (2024) has bad characters, a pointless plotline mixed in with the actual premise, ok looking cinematography, bad dialogue, and standard performances from the actors who are given bad direction in their scenes; though the only thing that was fine in the movie was how they showed the shark and how subtle its appearances were, it did not stop this movie from being a generic and forgettable shark movie. I will end this by saying that this film is just like any other VOD shark movie, and it did not surprise me that it ended of being like that by the time I was done watching it, it is just that there are better shark thrillers out there that you could watch; there is nothing else to say about this movie, there is nothing here to really recommend, it is just a generic bad shark movie.