Release date for the sequel to one of the best shark films since Jaws announced
Many consider The Reef (2010) in the top three shark films since the release of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975), which is no small feat.
Now, a sequel, The Reef: Stalked, from Andrew Traucki, the same writer and director of the original, is heading to the surface later this month.
The hotly anticipated shark sequel is released in US theaters, digital, VOD and streaming services on July 29th.
It follows a shiver of shark movies that have already surfaced this year, including The Requin (2022) and Shark Bait (2022), but The Reef: Stalked only really needs to worry about the long shadow that its first instalment casts. It is encouraging that the original writer and director is back on board though.
The original was based on a true story, this time round it doesn’t seem to be taking real life as a jumping off point, which perhaps isn’t a bad thing as there were concerns on that film’s blurring of fact and fiction.
This time round we join Nic, her younger sister, and two of her friends on a kayaking and diving adventure, escaping the horror her witness her sister’s murder. However, the adrenalin gets pumping for all the wrong reasons when they are stalked and attacked by a great white shark.
Now, they must work together, Nic must overcome her post traumatic stress disorder and survive the elements or end up victims of being stalked on the reef.
What set the original film out from the competition was that it successfully used and melded actual live shark footage into the mix, giving a heightened sense of realism, and looking at the trailer it looks like they have gone for that same successful winning formula.
Not that utilising specially shot live action great white shark footage is anything new, Jaws did it back in the day with Ron and Valerie Taylor filming off the coast of Southern Australia where they were filming the amazing footage of the shark – accidently – getting caught in the top of Matt Hooper’s portable show…we mean anti-shark cage.
It wasn’t scripted, to be fair the great white shark couldn’t read, but the footage was so spectacular that they decided to keep it in the picture.
If there is any CGI or actual size model work in The Reef: Stalked, it will be interesting to see how it is realised in the finished film. Hopefully our jaws will drop and our feet will raise from the floor for a second time in this film series.
Words by Dean Newman
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