23rd Jan2025

‘Into The Deep’ Review

by Jim Morazzini

Stars: Quinn P Hensley, Scout Taylor-Compton, Callum McGowan, Stuart Townsend, Richard Dreyfuss, Jon Seda | Written by Chad Law, Josh Ridgway | Directed by Christian Sesma

As a young girl, Cassidy (Quinn P Hensley; Hacks, Dhar Mann) saw her father killed by a shark while getting her to safety. Now a grown woman, Cassidy (Scout Taylor-Compton; The Lurker, They Turned Us Into Killers) is returning to the same stretch of coast near Reunion Island on the anniversary of his death to try to put her nightmares behind her.

Along with her husband Gregg (Callum McGowan; Raven’s Hollow, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea), they’re going out on a charter run by his friend Daemon Benz (Stuart Townsend; Apache Junction, Queen of the Damned). On the way out she has a flashback to her grandfather Seamus (Richard Dreyfuss; Jaws, Murder at Yellowstone City) telling his students “The ocean is a dangerous wonder, you’re a visitor here. You are a guest of their kingdom. Be careful.” It’s the first of many platitudes we’ll hear from him before the film is done.

In the present, as Cassidy, Gregg and the other divers head to their destination, a newscaster warns of bad weather pirate activity and mentions the theft of eighty kilos of heroin from police custody. Do you think they’ll figure into the story? Of course, they will.

Director Christian Sesma (I’m Not Like That No More, Every Last One of Them) and writers Chad Law (Beyond Valkyrie: Dawn of the 4th Reich, The Getback) and Josh Ridgway (The Flood, Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop) actually focus on those elements. The shark, after the initial attack, takes a back seat to Jordan (Jon Seda; Carlito’s Way, Chicago P.D.) and his crew of pirates. It seems the smugglers were leery of them and stashed the drugs somewhere on the seabed, and who better than a bunch of divers to retrieve it for them. If this sounds a bit familiar, it should, Deep Fear covered a lot of the same ground about a year ago.

Into the Deep thankfully is several notches above that film, though, with some decent action scenes and a palpable sense of threat from both the pirates and the sharks. Unfortunately, more than one scene suffers from having Cassidy’s flashbacks edited into them, killing the tension. Even worse, most of Dreyfuss’ scenes could have been done without. They’re meant to be something that helps Cassidy deal with her fears, but his lines are so bland and generic, I can’t imagine anyone bothering to remember them.

As for the rest of the cast, Scout Taylor-Compton makes for a likeable heroine and has a good nemesis in Seda, who chews the scenery and his cigar with equal amounts of enthusiasm. The rest of the cast are decent even though, with a couple of exceptions, they’re simply there to look good and pad the film’s body count.

The CGI for the sharks is a mixed bag. Scenes of them swimming around and menacing the divers look fairly good. The attacks however leave a bit to be desired, with the blood looking like red paint superimposed over the action. When the sharks aren’t around, cinematographer Niccolo De La Fere (Operation Blood Hunt, 3 Days in Malay) captures some nice footage of a sunken warship and other underwater sights to give the film a bit more visual appeal.

While not as good as it could have been, Into the Deep is still better than a lot of recent entries in the shark attack or crime genre. It also has the good sense to keep itself to a quick ninety minutes so it doesn’t start to drag, except during the flashbacks.

*** 3/5

Saban Films will release Into the Deep in theatres, as well as VOD and digital platforms, on January 24th. In the UK, Signature Entertainment will release it on January 27th with DVDs arriving February 3rd.
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Review originally posted on Voices From the Balcony
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