Something in the Water Review

Something in the Water is the feature film debut of art director turned filmmaker Hayley Easton Street. What she offered is a British spin on the survival-thriller.

A group of five friends travel to the Caribbean for Lizzie’s (Lauren Lyle) wedding. However, there’s tension within the group because Meg (Hiftu Quasem) and Kayla (Natalie Mitson), had broken up after Meg was a victim of a homophobic attack. When the group visits a remote island they plan to force Meg and Kayla to have a proper heart-to-heart, but it all goes array when a shark becomes present.

Survival thriller is a high-and-miss subgenre. Some can be exhilarating films about people surviving against the natural world, others can be borefests. Something in the Water was more of the latter. After the shark attacked the film turned into a comedy of errors as everything that can go wrong did go wrong. This was a film that showed their boat sinking and finding out one member of the party couldn’t swim. Half the film was spent with the women who were literally treading water. They argued about whose fault it was they got into this predicament and fought off shark attacks, but they were stranded in the middle of the ocean and waiting. The idea would be that this caused tension, but it gave the film its biggest problem, it was dull. It was a similar issue to Fall where it was about two characters trapped two miles up in the sky.

The filmmakers seemed like they were influenced by Fall. Both films were female-centric survival thrillers and had a similar start where the main character suffers from some traumatic incident and needs to confront her issues. There was also a bit of Unwelcome since that film opened with a home invasion. The other motivation for the filmmakers was Fall made a lot of money from a $3 million budget. Something in the Water saved money by hiring a cast of mostly unknowns and shooting in limited locations. However, Something in the Water is going to be compared to Open Water and The Shallows, two other films about people stranded in the ocean and needing to fend off sharks.

Something in the Water did aim to have a character arc through Meg. She was mentally scarred after the attack to the point she needed to use an app to charm herself down, and it destroyed her relationship with Kayla. Yet when the shark bites the woman Meg was the one who had to take charge of the group. The filmmakers would argue that Something in the Water was a story about Meg’s strength, mental recovery, and healing of an old relationship. Sadly, some of the people she was trying to save were so annoying I wanted to be used as shark chum.

Something in the Water was a good-looking film. It was mostly shot on location in the Dominican Republic which must have been a great incentive for the cast and crew. There was some great scenery and the director of photography, Niels Reedtz Johansen, was able to supply some impressive underwater photography. There was also an excellent markup job when the film did show the injury from the shark attack. It did look horrifically realistic. However, the CGI for the sharks was poor and laughable. A cheesy B-movie could get away with those effects but Something in the Water was trying to have an air of seriousness.

Something in the Water was a thriller with a wafer-thin script and characters the characters had been done before. Even for a film that had a short run time, it was a drag.