Title: Deep Water
First Non-Festival Release: April 30, 2026 (Theatrical Release)
Director: Renny Harlin
Writer: Pete Bridges, Shayne Armstrong, S.P Krause
Runtime: 106 Minutes
Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Ben Kingsley, Angus Sampson
Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here
Originally purposed as a sequel to the indie creature feature Bait 3D, Deep Water was scrapped in the mid 2010s due to the similarities to the infamous missing Malaysian Flight 380. Director Renny Harlin’s latest foray into sharksploitation reshapes the story into something its own.
En route to Shanghai over the Pacific Ocean, a catastrophic mechanical failure causes the flight to make an emergency landing hundreds of miles from the nearest stretch of land. Pilots Ben (Aaron Eckhart) and Rich (Ben Kingsley) do their best to lead the passengers to safety in their descent. With the plane left in pieces, the handful of survivors on the 257-person flight must band together to survive the choppy waters and the swarms of hungry sharks feasting on the bodies of their fallen fellow passengers.
Middling shark survival action horror Deep Water sleepwalks through familiar disaster horror beats.
Wasting no time, Deep Water takes off immediately while speedrunning through the pleasantries. Boasting a large supporting cast, Deep Water’s problems begin quickly by spreading out precious character development before the plane goes down. Each character is given just enough backstory to be sympathetic but never given any interesting material to handle it as the film continues.
Before takeoff, the audience is introduced to several stock characters anyone who has seen a few horror or disaster movies can quickly identify. There’s the drunken asshole, the self-centered businessman, the precocious daughter, the helpless child, and, of course, the pilot with a tragic backstory. Deep Water has the opportunity to do something interesting with any of them but doesn't.
Their resulting arcs are given as much care. It’s frustrating to watch Deep Water go through the motions of stock B-movie conflict only to deliver middling scares. Concerned more with getting from point A to point B, the film is logical to a fault. Characters need to cross large stretches of water to consolidate their numbers, and Deep Water does exactly this and not much more. Characters disappear only to be revealed as shark bait a few scenes later. Characters wriggle out of certain death by the grace of God and last-minute maneuvers that defy both story progression and suspense conventions. Characters find every opportunity to antagonize each other despite their extraordinary circumstances. At a certain point, it feels like the scenes are crafted out of obligation rather than artistic or story-driven merit.
The action is as limp as the character writing, with most of the signature shark sequences materializing without much weight. With multiple situations happening at the same time, Deep Water finds itself stuck in a never-ending cycle of repetitive shark action sequences. While the situation itself is clearly dire, the distinct lack of urgency from some of the passengers is reflected in the voracity of the filmmaking. A far departure from his fun, action-packed late 90s shark flick Deep Blue Sea, Harlin’s Deep Water opts for short bursts of shark frenzy over more sustained forms of suspense. It’s disappointing because there truly are some great bones for set pieces. Floating luggage, half-submerged airplane sections, and tiny lifeboats are given cursory attention before leapfrogging to the next scene. Breathless but in a rushed sense, there is little to gain from the hollow shark horror.
Despite its flaws, Deep Water is a thoroughly competent film that fails to capitalize on any momentum it gains. Specific sequences demonstrate that there is life bubbling beneath the surface of the otherwise middling creature feature. The plane crash is the centerpiece of the film, allowing Deep Water to believably raise the stakes over the course of its well-constructed descent. Expanding where most films would constrict, the plane crash delivers the best thrills of the film thanks to the well-crafted chaos. From there, Deep Water sinks any goodwill built but it doesn’t erase the prowess demonstrated earlier.
Going through the motions, Deep Water delivers passable B-movie entertainment but disappoints with ineffective scares. Weak writing, flimsy characters, and bland action sequences make it difficult to get behind the admittedly terrifying concept behind the film. Harlin’s B-movie magic is entirely absent in this paint-by-the-numbers sharksploitation flick, even if flashes of his old-style shine through in moments.
Overall Score? 5/10
