‘Blind Waters’ Review (Tubi Original)
Stars: Meghan Carrasquillo, Noam Sigler, Francisco Angelini, Martijn Kuiper, Jhey Castles, Chris Cleveland, Back Hayes, Gabriel Angulo, Paty Cruz | Written and Directed by Anthony C. Ferrante
In the opening scene of The Asylum-made Tubi Original Blind Waters, a couple leap off a boat into glistening blue water. Big mistake. The camera cuts underwater as a shark glides straight toward the lens and – hold on – it actually looks good. Really good. For an Asylum production, it’s a genuinely surprising moment, one that briefly raises expectations. Then, barely 30 seconds later, a much larger shark turns up and devours it in a messy, bargain-basement CGI attack that looks like it was made on an early-2000s PC. And that’s when it clicks. Damn. That first shark shot was stock footage, wasn’t it?
Originally produced in 2023, Blind Waters is a relatively new (or “new-ish”) arrival on Tubi here in the UK, and with the service itself still finding its feet in British waters, this feels like one of those titles designed to bulk out the shark-heavy end of the catalogue (because Tubi has a LOT of shark movies on its service). Directed by Anthony C. Ferrante, forever linked to Sharknado, this is a more straight-faced affair, ditching parody for a more traditional survival thriller approach… at least in theory.
The story follows a young couple on holiday who hire a boat for a scuba trip, with a proposal planned and romance in the air. Naturally, everything goes wrong. A rogue shark attacks, the boat capsizes, and the pair are left clinging to the wreckage. To complicate matters further, the female lead suffers a head injury that leaves her mostly blind, while a human threat, a killer with questionable motives, enters the picture to add another layer of danger.
On paper, there are some solid ideas here. A visually impaired protagonist and a morally murky human antagonist are decent wrinkles in a genre that usually relies on toothy repetition. In practice, though, Blind Waters never fully commits. The blindness rarely impacts the action in meaningful ways, and while the killer occasionally hints at something more interesting, he ultimately settles into familiar B-movie villain territory. There’s a far more nuanced story lurking here, but it’s only lightly sketched.
Technically, the film is… fine. For a low-budget Asylum production, it’s competently assembled. The underwater sequences are generally clear, the sound mix is serviceable, and everything is at least visible and intelligible. The shark effects, however, are wildly inconsistent, which makes that opening stock-footage tease feel especially cheeky in hindsight. Outside of a few passable shots, the CGI shark is floaty, weightless, and rarely convincing, undermining most of the threat once the film settles in.
The performances are better than you might expect, particularly from the central couple, who manage to sell the situation without tipping into full-on ham. Predictability, however, remains the film’s biggest issue. The title alone signals who’s making it out alive, draining much of the tension. Add in obvious day-for-night shooting, conveniently forgotten storms, and a Coast Guard subplot that exists purely to pad the runtime, and you’ve got a film that rarely surprises.
Still, for what it is, Blind Waters isn’t unwatchable. It’s silly, uneven, and firmly constrained by its budget, but it’s competently shot, reasonably acted, and occasionally entertaining. It flirts with originality, even if it never quite bites down on it.
** 2/5
Blind Waters is available to stream on Tubi now.
