Period Shark Horror Gives Audiences Something to Fear Below (2025)

Title: Fear Below

First Non-Festival Release: May 2, 2025 (Limited Theatrical Release)

Director: Matthew Holmes

Writer: Matthew Holmes, Gregory Moss

Runtime: 85 Minutes

Starring: Hermione Corfield, Jake Ryan, Josh McConville

Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here

The field of diving has considerably evolved in the last hundred years thanks to technological advances and the pure human instinct to explore. Back in the 1940s, the sport was much clunkier – relying on bulky equipment and convoluted methods of remaining submerged.

The plucky team of the Sea Dog Diving company are offered the chance of a lifetime when Bull Maddock (Jake Ryan) approaches them for an important diving job: recovering the cargo of a submerged van. Reluctant to share details, Maddock promises a sum impossible to refuse. Unbeknownst to the crew, Maddock and his team are attempting to smuggle hundreds of gold bars. Caught up in their twisted web of thievery and deceit, their problems only worsen when a territorial bull shark finds its way to the wreckage, determined to flush out any potential prey.

A shark thriller with little bite, Fear Below provides serviceable frights for its admittedly genius premise.

The setup for Fear Below is both challenging and exciting in how it subverts the typical trappings of the sub-genre. Introducing an outside element of danger and a reasonable barrier to just abandoning the loot, Fear Below plays with tension as characters go into the water with no idea if they will re-emerge. The unpredictable nature of the shark and confined setting allow for the tension to build naturally, especially as others wander into the dangerous path of the shark and the gangsters. It works well in some moments more than others but it’s a respectable approach to an otherwise overworked subgenre.

In the end, much like real-life sharks, stagnation becomes the killer of Fear Below. Once the intentions of the human antagonists are revealed, the mystery behind Fear Below evaporates and is replaced with this lack of urgency. It doesn’t outright ruin the film but makes for some tedious moments in the film’s back half. It would be easier to ignore if Fear Below did something interesting with this departure, but it amounts to mostly petty squabbling until the final confrontation.

Little depth is afforded to the characters, heroes and villains alike, so when the fearsome fish finally chomps down on them it’s hard to feel anything. Much of the development is foisted upon Hermione Corfield’s Clara and Jake Ryan’s Braddock, and even then, it doesn’t amount to much. There are some brief quibbles draped in misogyny and racism that portend the ways in which the operation will turn but offer little in terms of genuine character development. Because of the nature of the film’s plot, there’s a lot of time spent waiting for characters to return from the water and writer/director Matthew Holmes doesn’t do much with these moments to bring insight or depth to them. Clearly not the focus of the creature feature, it’s disappointing characters make it more of a slog to stick with the decently crafted shark action.

Solid production values keep the aquatic creature feature afloat when it otherwise would sink. The shark itself looks as real as one can hope for a film of this size and scope. Its interaction with the real-life actors and props can be suspect at times but largely works. Its distinct lack of tension comes more from its uneven placement within the story. The uncertainty of its movements should make for great tension, but the attacks come few and far in between to land any real impact.

Easily the most aggressively fine shark movie in existence, Fear Below disappoints only in how much potential is wasted. Solid shark design and its compelling premise elevate this indie shark thriller beyond its dreams. Battered by its static story and listless approach to action, Fear Below bubbles beneath the surface of greatness. For fans of shark horror, Fear Below has just enough to recommend. For those less committed to the ocean’s greatest beast, it’s okay to pass too.

Overall Score? 6/10