The Reef

Excellent minimalist work with suspense, which is conveyed at a crawling pace and in reasonable doses. Believable characters played in a relatable way, no overly pretty TV faces. Without illogical or unlikely moments. (04.12.2014)

Do you remember Black Water, a small and good Australian thriller about a bunch of people threatened by a crocodile? This is exactly the same. Andrew Traucki must have told himself that since he was praised the last time, he wouldn’t change things for the next one; at most, the animal that gives the heroes a bad time. Now we have five nice people, a shipwreck, the open ocean and a hungry shark. It works well, there isn’t much to complain about, but this year there’s been another survival flick that I liked more (Frozen). 6/10 (15.11.2010)

Swimming ten miles across the open ocean knowing that a five-metre-long bloodthirsty creature is sniffing around behind you is not very pleasant. Not only do those who’ve personally had the privilege know this, but the Australian filmmakers have, with this unassuming film, hammered a similar sense of anxiety into my innocent head. If you don't expect bloody carnage, you'll get 90 minutes of intense and patiently built tension, the infectious fear of a terrifying enemy, and some brilliantly filmed shark attacks on humans that may not revel in red-blooded detail, but sound so real that it's chilling. And what's more, it's done without those well-known B-movie clichés, without digital monsters and without annoying heroes, who this time we don't wish for the shark to bite their ass any more than we wish it for ourselves. It could have been shorter a bit in places and the opening ten minutes are actually unnecessary, but otherwise, a very pleasant surprise that I could easily watch more than once. 70% (25.08.2013)

When you're making a shark horror movie, you basically have three options. You can create the sharks digitally and have absolute control over their "acting". You can create an animatronic puppet that will do what is asked of it within its capabilities (unless it breaks down - then you have to use your imagination and figure out how to deal with it, like Spielberg in Jaws). Or you can take more risks and cast real sharks. Andrew Traucki opted for the third option (as in his previous crocodile horror Black Water). First he filmed real sharks in all sorts of positions and movements, then he filmed actors reacting to them, and finally he combined everything together. The downside of this approach is that the real sharks understandably don't follow the director's instructions. You have to match the actors' action to them and give the impression of continuity. But the result was surprisingly successful. The sharks feel authentic and unpredictable thanks to their unadaptability. Yet the most frightening moments are when the characters floating on the surface can't see them and don't know where they are. The performances are pleasantly civil, thanks to the need to improvise. The characters behave believably, you can very easily put yourself in their shoes and understand their every decision. The film lacks the usual genre clichés, like last-minute rescues, is frighteningly uncompromising and completely devoid of humour. It is shot mostly from the level of the characters on the choppy water, successfully evoking a sense of paranoia, uncertainty and disorientation on the open sea, across which the characters try to swim from the sinking ship to a remote island whose location they only suspect. The Reef is undoubtedly one of the rawest and most compelling shark horror films. (15.11.2023)