Film Review: Open Water (2003)

Open Water is one of the glut of horror films allegedly based on a true story in the wake of The Blair Witch Project. Simply put: a young rich, overworked couple go on a vacation, go SCUBA diving, and get left behind by the ship due to some carelessness in head counting techniques. It's a human suspense drama floating out at sea.

Perhaps the true achievement of Open Water isn't the finished product at all, but the process that created it. On a very small budget - about 130 thousand dollars, husband and wife team Chris Kentis (Director, Writer) and Laura Lau (Producer) made smart decisions that resulted in a massive 2.5 million dollar deal from Lionsgate. Filmed solely on weekends over the better part of a year, Kentis and Lau filmed what they knew: SCUBA. They took every precaution when dealing with the live sharks used in filming so neither the two main actors nor Kentis, Lau, and crew were in any real danger. The result is a luscious dedication to the beauty and danger of the oceanic world.

The leading performances are very good, though as the situation becomes more extreme they are prone to bouts of melodrama that seem out of place in the otherwise very subtle, even keeled film. Blanchard Ryan is particularly effective as the successful independent woman still trying to let her boyfriend take the lead. The love, the tension, the arguments, the fear, the full gamete of emotions never seems forced in her performance. If she's hysterical, there's a good justified reason for it.

The true star of the film, however, is the camera work. With such a small budget, in an uncontrollable environment like actual open water, it would seem inevitable that some indication of a camera or film crew would appear in the film; it never happens. No reflections, no careless camera crosses, no mistakes at all. The skill goes beyond excelling in fundamentals in a difficult situation. Not since Creature of the Black Lagoon has a film crew been so obsessed with capturing the raw beauty of undersea life. Loving shots of coral, fish, and other sea life wash over the screen at just the right moments. Imagine a crew capable of filming sharks in multiple emotional contexts in a horror film, flowing from serenity to terror and many in between. If nothing else, Open Water managed to capture some truly moving images of ocean life within the context of a horror film.

The technical achievements don't stop there. The costuming basically amounts to wet suits and SCUBA gear, though the color choices are key. When multiple couples are swimming, the leads always stand out due to the subtle neon details in pinks and purples that pop on the screen. The editing is top notch as well in the ocean sequences. The sun is never once out of place in the chronology of the film, a true achievement considering the scattered film schedule. Filmed in the ocean, the sound is clear and crisp, helping to build the tension of the two characters stranded at sea. All you hear is their voices, their bodies swimming, and the constant motion of the waves.

Unfortunately, there is a significant flaw to the film that is very damaging in the last reel: it doesn't just focus on the couple. The sense of isolation that preyed on audience is shattered as soon as rescue boats and helicopters are seen sweeping the ocean. It almost seems tacked on just to make the real ending seem more powerful; it just didn't need it. Instead of being effected by the couple's plight in a natural way, writer/director Kentis goes against the initial compelling principle by resting the couple's fate in the hands of modern technology. The ending can come across as extremely manipulative even when that conclusion is clearly inevitable.

With the major flaw and all, Open Water is certainly worth watching. Just short of an 80 minute run time, the crew actually delivered with a flimsy, based on a true story premise and produced a solid horror film. That's not to say the concept didn't come from true stories. People are left behind during SCUBA trips every year, and some are never recovered. Outside of that, Open Water is even more of an achievement because it presents a believable scenario of what might have happened to a pair of those lost SCUBA divers.