Review: 47 Meters Down Uncaged
Although having enjoyed the original 47 Meters Down, I wasn't sat waiting for a sequel or anticipating that one with the daughters of Sylvester Stallone and Jamie Foxx would have me hooked until the end credits.
But after a slow start, that's exactly what happened.
Until you hit the water 47 Meters Down Uncaged doesn't get interesting, but when it finally does the claustrophobia and tension fills the air bubbles, literally until they pop.
I was hoping for The Descent with sharks and although it wasn't as tense as the Neil Marshall potholing horror (there's a phrase you don't hear every day) it did get me feeling all Matt Hooper in his cage.
Perhaps it was the long day at work and the need for some easy watching fodder, but I was I enjoying waiting for the shark to appear from the shadows of the cave not lit by torchlight. The stakes raised even further with the dive site and divers being compromised.
And its then through the swirls of confusion and sediment and silt that we first see the shark, and I'll admit I wanted to warn them.
As everyone wore masks it was kind of hard to figure out who was who, but then the confusion only added to the sort of reality of the situation. To aid this lots of character names were repeated ad infinitum - which was a tad annoying.
Of course, just when you think things can't get any worse they invariably do, cue cave entrance collapse sealing four young women with not just a shark, not just a great white shark, but a blind great white shark - by account of it having evolved in the cave system.
Full marks for them trying to do something new and different, it would be interesting to know if this was always designed to be part of this series or if it became 47 Meters Down Uncaged because it was easier to sell it with an established name.
Some of the lighting effects underwater were very effective and it added extra claustrophobia to have just oxygen mask breathing and no music. I watched it with subtitles on and I've never seen the caption - breathing anxiously - used more frequently.
There's at least one jumpy moment and the practical shark is always far better than any cgi attempt. In many ways it is comparable to Crawl, which was great until it just got a little bit silly.
With less of a ticking clock and more of a dwindling oxygen supply in ever decreasing percentages, if 47 Meters Down Uncaged wasn't a must see at the cinema, it's worth a viewing on Netflix whilst self isolating. Even if just for the Ben Gardner's head homage.
In the last act it is actually hard to figure out how anyone is actually going to get out alive. There are some clever and inventive flourishes that - in a film featuring dwindling oxygen - breathes some new energy into the shark thriller. I especially liked the red strobing sequence. Like it's somewhat forgetable protagonists, at time 47 Meters Down Uncaged will leave you breathless.
Bonkers ending, but you can't say they don't push the bigger boat out. And - in what is almost its own mini-film - it is that audacious it works. Just.
To paraphrase Quint, I'll never put on an oxygen tank again.
Interesting fact, it was filmed in the Dominican Republic, with underwater studio work taking place at the home of James Bond and in Basildon in Essex, ironically just miles from where I am writing this review.
47 Meters Down Uncaged is now available to view on Netflix in the UK.
By Dean Newman
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