Shark Movie Review: The Reef Stalked (2022)
How much life can a film series really get from animal attacks? How many ways can the situation of aggressive wildlife terrorising humans take place without it becoming stale and boring? JAWS (1975) tried to have great white sharks attacking the Brody family repeatedly, stretching this idea like a cheese string before inevitably falling apart. This was due to studio interference rather than anything the writers of the respective films wanted.
Directed by Australian writer Andrew Traucki, The Reef: Stalked follows the pattern of his previous films, namely people in barren settings being chased by something hostile. It perhaps isn't surprising considering the multitude of things in Australia that can kill you at the drop of a hat.
His previous films include the first The Reef (2010) film, in my opinion the best shark film of recent times, Black Water, another tense thriller about a group trapped by a large crocodile, a Black Water sequel and The Jungle, a story of a conservationist who is stalked whilst searching for big cats.
Indeed, the original The Reef film is the highest scorer so far on my list of shark films. It builds the tension incredibly well, avoids the cliched happy ending of so many Hollywood films and has believable characters who actually give survival a good go as opposed to just screaming through the film and making stupid decisions (I'm looking at you, The Requin).
And yet, how many sequels can you name that are as good as or better than the original? I'd hope one of the multitude of Friday the 13th sequels would be as good as or better than the original (which doesn't have the best critical reputation) for example. There are certainly sequels that are just not in my wheelhouse so I can't really say with any authority that they are better or worse.
I would put the second Tremors film on my own list as I would also do with Terminator 2 (although I think the original is underrated). Dawn of the Dead is a potential for that list too although few endings have ever shocked me like the first time I saw Night of the Living Dead. Some may say the second Godfather film is better than the first but I'd been told the whole franchise was so good to the point that it could never actually match up to expectations. Some Star Wars fans may have an opinion too (I beg you not to share them with me) and other extended franchises such as James Bond and Harry Potter will naturally have higher points than others.
Overall, the sequel has gained a reputation for existing for financial rather than artistic purposes. Michael Gross, Burt Gummer in the Tremors franchise, says this about a sequel to the most recent Tremors film: “There are no guarantees, but for those who wonder aloud if this is the final film, I will say what I have said before: SALES drive sequels. Show biz is 5% show and 95% business, so if this latest addition to the Tremors franchise, sells well, [Universal] will follow the money, and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment may will be back for more.”
Jason Statham said of more Meg films, "I think it's like anything in this day and age—if it makes money, there's an appetite to make more money. And if it doesn't do well, they'll soon sweep it under the carpet.” These quotes from industry veterans back up the financial purposes argument. But the first Reef film didn't make millions and millions of pounds (or dollarydoos). What does this mean for the sequel?
Watching the trailer, I was pleased to see none of the original cast returning (I mean, four of them ended up dead). What I mean by that is shark attacks are so unlikely and unusual
that it is already stretching reality to have shark films in the first place. One of the most unbelievable things about the Jaws franchise was that members of the same family kept encountering dangerous great whites. I liked the cast from the first film so it is certainly nothing personal against them.
Other shark films that have sequels rarely feature the same cast, the Sharknado films being an obvious exception. The Jaws franchise has a degree of continuity but there is nobody who appears in all four films. The Reef: Stalked follows the new cast model although it would be difficult to keep the cast from the first film given the events that take place. In that sense, The Reef: Stalked is unrelated to the first film. It is what film buffs might call a spiritual sequel, a sequel that retains the essence of an original but otherwise is intended to stand on its own feet.
There also seemed to be some new ideas. An issue with sequels can be that they stick to what made the original successful as that is the entire reason the sequel exists. The ladies in peril in the trailer seemed to have a bit more going for them and a plan to go with it. I also saw real sharks again, one of the best things about the first film. So, will The Reef: Stalked match up to it's predecessor or will it fall short like so many of it's brethren before it?
Plot
The film opens with an aerial shot of an idyllic beach. I must say that some of the locations I've seen in these films do look like paradise. Makes me wonder how I got stuck in the North West of England.
A diver swims amongst a colourful reef and the opening credits, recording videos of the fish. Other snorkellers soon join and the women discuss some of the wildlife that they have seen/speared through the head. The quartet take selfies and leave the water for a walk.
There are a pair of sisters in the group and the other two seem to be long time friends of the sisters. One of the sisters is picked up by her boyfriend Greg but seems a little reluctant to go with him. Nonetheless she leaves with him and the group go their separate ways. Nic (played by Teressa Liane) sees Greg shouting at her sister (Cath, played by Bridget Burt) and is visibly annoyed by what she has seen but does nothing to interject. Whilst in the car she rings her sister but gets no answer (I should say that a domestic violence scene is coming up and it finishes around the 9 minute mark and the description of it here lasts for two paragraphs).
Back at Chez Nic we meet Annie (Saskia Archer) and she hasn’t left the house all day. Nic acts the parent to her little sister but has to cut it short when she gets a message from Cath saying ‘please come.’ She tries ringing again but gets no answer. She travels to Cath’s house and finds the door open (always a good sign in horror films) and items strewn upon the floor. Greg is sitting at a table with nothing on his feet (don’t know why that stood out to me) whilst staring away from the camera). Nic approaches him when he doesn’t respond to her and turns around to reveal scratches beneath his eye. ‘She wouldn’t listen,’ he breathes. Showing the classic behaviour of an abusive spouse, Greg says that Cath made him do it when Nic asks where she is.
There is blood and water on the walls and the floor, inviting Nic to enter the bathroom. Inside is Cath, drowned in the bath tub. We get a flashback to Cath’s final, brutal moments of being strangled by her partner under the water before cutting to the title card.
Nine months later, we see more unspoiled natural beauty and two people on a bike travelling to a resort and spa. Nic reunites with the two swimmers from earlier (named Jodie and Lisa). The faces Jodie and Lisa exchange combined with Nic immediately pulling out a bottle of tequila suggests all is not well. Before the first shot is poured, Nic looks ready to break down in tears but is surprised when Annie is here too. The group wish to pay tribute to Cath and have a picture of the last time they were all together but Nic is struggling to keep it together. She begins to have flashbacks to the day her sister died and the PTSD seems to have a real hold over her.
The group are on the beach and Nic begins to talk to Annie. Annie seems to have left the house (she made an apple pie so must’ve gone for ingredients) before coming here so she is improving socially from when we first meet her. Nic says she had stopped diving so the next day the group walk to a set of four canoes which they'll take out instead. They set off for what is supposed to be a three day trip across the ocean.
Jodie and Lisa want to go for a dive and the sisters agree. Nic sets off with Jodie and Lisa whilst Annie waits at the surface. Whilst the three divers are spear fishing, Annie is surveying the surface when something splashes behind her. Viewers of the original learned what to associate this with. They also learned what an underwater POV shot of someone on the surface indicated and we get one of those too. The camera slowly moves towards Annie’s dangling legs. She begins to swim away.
Meanwhile, Nic is panting at the surface and the water is triggering her PTSD due to the association of her sister being found underneath it. Annie has swum back to her canoe and we get our first jump scare when Lisa appears next to her. Annie seemed nonchalant about the sudden appearance next to her however and asks Lisa for help getting into the canoe. They spot children playing nearby and birds flying around. Lisa tells Annie there must be a bait ball of fish. Jodie is now the only one underneath the water. On the surface however, we get our first sign of trouble, a small fin breaks the surface momentarily and is spotted by Annie. Annie is not familiar with sharks and doesn’t know if it was small or not.
Jodie surfaces near Nic who has been alerted that something is in the water by Annie. Jodie scans beneath the waves, complete with speared fish. Whilst the tension is building it doesn’t feel quite as well done as the original. I think the water was a little darker and the bubbles made it difficult to see far whereas the water we see now is perfect. They make their way back to the canoes, sticking close together and get to safety without incident. They think it was probably a reef shark, a relatively harmless shark to humans. They agree to head to a nearby island and cook the speared fish for lunch.
We find out from Lisa that surfers call sharks the man in the grey suit. She says they are pretty timid but the big ones you have to worry about. I smell foreshadowing.
The birds seem a little closer now and, again, something breaks the surface. Annie scans the horizon and then sees an enormous fin. She begins to panic and calls Lisa but drops her paddle into the ocean. It is our first really tense moment as she tries to grab the paddle to get to safety. On the third effort she hauls it in and she seems to be momentarily out of danger. However, she looks around and
sees a large great white curiously investigating her canoe. Again, real shark footage has been used here and it looks amazing.
She shouts for Lisa again and the shark has vanished. She gingerly makes her way to land but a real great white bites the tip of the canoe and she is thrown into the water. The shark swims close by and Annie desperately makes it to the surface. Lisa turns around, sees Annie in trouble and heads back out to sea to help. We get what I think is actually a Jaws reference when we see Annie swimming along the surface. Annie tries desperately to turn the canoe back over but she is not what the shark is interested in. Lisa, speeding back to Annie, sees the fin too late and is also overturned. At this point the girls are having as much luck with their canoes as John Darwin did. The shark attacks Lisa’s canoe, pulling it beneath the waves in a display of its brute power.
The two look around for their assailant but see nothing for now and Lisa tries to get to Annie. However, the fin is cruising on the surface again and heading for Annie now that it’s realised canoe isn’t really its thing. Nic and Jodie have realised something is wrong and have turned around. The shark only just misses Annie as she clambers atop of the overturned canoe that is left. Lisa is still floating helplessly and Annie beckons her to the canoe. She is almost there when Annie warns her to watch out. It is too late. Lisa is pulled under water by a CGI shark and the ocean turns red. By now, Jodie and Nic have arrived and they help a distraught Annie.
Nic bravely gets in with the intention of flipping Annie’s kayak over so they can get back to land but Annie is understandably reluctant. She eventually convinces her and they flip the kayak and get Annie back in relatively quickly. Nic needs to get into her canoe and manages to do so. Annie is in shock but she can paddle. She does mention that there are kids swimming and Jodie goes ahead to warn them. Can Jodie out paddle the king of the sea? An overhead shot of the shark stalking her from behind suggests we may well find out soon.
Jodie sees the fin appear and begins to get a little frantic but she realises that the shark is after the children. One of the children spots the shark but another is swimming back to land. He speeds up when he realises what is happening and makes it back to safety but the other child is trapped. I’ll be astounded if the child gets eaten but that theory is tested when the shark bites through the wooden pontoon she is on and she too ends up in the water.
Swimming as hard as she can and encouragement from the beach it seems she might make it but the fin appears and the girl is grabbed. Jodie is paddling frantically now and manages to pull the girl out of the water and get her to safety, albeit with a badly bitten leg. The gravity of what has happened begins to hit Jodie but the immediate concern is the girl. They treat her as best as they can but they are the only people on the island. Help is on the next island. There is one problem though. The only boat available isn’t any safer than the kayaks. Nic and Annie go to investigate anyway.
They drag the boat back to land and Annie suggests tying the canoes to the boat to make it more stable. Knowing that time is of the essence she sets off to get the canoes to the chagrin of Nic. Having fashioned the canoes into the style of a Polynesian catamaran - boats that Polynesian civilisations used to cross the Pacific Ocean long before Europeans did so - Jodie thinks back again to Lisa’s death. Annie tries to comfort her but Jodie is obviously haunted.
Nic is also not happy with Annie’s plan. The two argue with Annie landing a couple of stinging barbs. Jodie and Annie are handed a machete and a sharp stick and Nic agrees to come with them. At least this time they have a motor for the boat. As a side note, you may find it interesting to look
into Polynesian navigation, a truly remarkable achievement that ranks up there with the most impressive things humans have done for me.
They seem to be making good progress when they come across some flotsam and jetsam (Jason Newstead is nowhere to be seen however) and Annie realises that the boat is leaking. To make matters worse, the motor has given out. And we hear a splash. Another argument breaks out and there is clearly some tension developing between the two sisters. Short of the kraken rearing up, it's difficult to see how things could get worse. However, Nic and Jodie paddle the boat and they continue.
We find out that Nic left Australia the day after Cath’s funeral, which she didn’t attend and this is the reason that Annie has grown up like she has. Annie is annoyed with her for leaving whilst Jodie continues to paddle in what must feel like an awkward atmosphere.
Birds appear nearby again, presumably akin to the shark’s leitmotif at this point. They paddle a little faster but it isn’t fast enough and what I have to say is a crap looking CGI shark slams into their DIY catamaran. Annie is in the water, Nic’s triggers are going off and somewhere in the deep is a shark.
Annie swims slowly back to the catamaran but the shark comes from nowhere and grabs her, pulling her under the waves. However she surfaces, face down and unconscious but alive. Nic jumps in to help her sister. They actually get safely back into the boat and discover that the shark has Sideshow Bob levels of incompetence when it comes to killing and actually failed to bite properly. This does raise the question of why Annie was unconscious and floating face down. Perhaps she passed out through shock or fear?
The sisters share a hug and Nic apologises for not being around after Cath’s death. Some shrieking strings tell us that the shark is still close by and Jodie is the first one to spot it. One of them tells the shark to f*** off and it actually does. That is, until it doesn’t. Jodie wants to keep paddling but Nic wants to try a different approach - killing it. She wants to try death by anchor through attaching a fish to it, catching the shark on the anchor and drowning it. It at least seems more plausible than the death by anchor in The Requin so they decide to give it a try.
However a short wait later and the trio are wondering if the shark is even around any more. Jodie asks this aloud but Nic says that the shark won’t go. Annie and Jodie want to paddle until Annie spots the fin, proving Nic right. It grabs the canoe with the fish attached and begins to pull them further from the island whilst Jodie desperately tries to untie the line leashing them to the canoe. Taking the Quint approach, Jodie uses the machete to cut them loose (this has to be a Jaws reference) and they watch as the canoe is pulled under.
They think that the plan has worked and decide to abandon the other kayak to the ocean but I’m not sure this is a good idea. They paddle for the island but see something streaking towards them. It isn’t the shark but it is the canoe. Maybe it’s just the ghost of the canoe, warning them from beyond the watery grave of the dangers beneath. Suddenly the boat is bumped and it is Jodie’s turn to end up in the water. She miraculously escapes but the shark isn’t done just yet.
Again, it heads straight for them before vanishing under the water. It dawned on me as I was watching this that I’ve never learned how aware sharks are of their fins. They must have an idea that they are there but they’re essentially predators that come with their own warning system, a bit
like putting a bell on a giant cat to warn the local mice. They might be a bit more successful if they just stayed a little further beneath the surface. Certainly this shark has had six people in the water and only successfully killed one thus far.
The CGI returns and the shark tries to bite the boat. It is interspersed with real shark footage which does help. ‘Annie, are you okay?’ asks Nic, doing her best Michael Jackson impression. The trio just want the dangerous shark to beat it but this thriller isn’t quite done yet. Jodie and Nic agree that their choice is black or white - kill it or be killed. They have one more chance to kill the shark using a net that they have on board. They throw the net over the shark but Annie falls in. Nic picks up the machete (why they haven’t used that more I don’t know) but immediately drops it and she ends up getting wet too.
The shark is trying to get through the net to attack her sister and it is triggering Nic again but this time it seems to spur her on. The shark in this part is CGI but looks much better than other CGI in the film. Nic dives for the machete, grabbing it and thrusting it into their stalker’s white underbelly. After a struggle the shark seems to be dead but Annie could be too, having passed out from a lack of oxygen. Nic hauls her out of the net and Annie is okay once they make the surface.
The trio walk along the same beach that we started the film on with flowers in their hands. We learned that the girl who got attacked on the pontoon also survived and is now known as shark girl. She also has some massive scars that she can tell her grandchildren about one day. The internet cuts out mid conversation however. There is a stone nearby saying ‘Cath and Lisa - Dive Sisters Forever’ nearby and Nic, Jodie and Annie leave flowers and the photo from earlier at the stone. Nic says a few words and film finishes with an aerial shot of the three survivors.
Ratings
Quality of the shark/s: Unfortunately, I can't score this as highly as the original as the CGI breaks the illusion of the sharks really being there. That being said, the film still has plenty of footage of real sharks to use and the shark caught in the net doesn't look too bad. There were some great shots that they got for the film and it is just a shame that they couldn't get more. Perhaps it's harsh to knock the score down as it is impossible to tell sharks to do something you want them to and so certain scenes will require some help from computers. But the way the sharks were put into the first film really added to the tension. In this, the CGI took away from it a little.
That being said, the shots of the shark biting the canoe and the boat are great and there is a shot in which I assume a shark was trailing bait that got used in an attack scene which was nice too.
8/10
Underwater Photography: Considering the main characters enjoy diving and snorkelling as well as spending plenty of time in the water there isn't a great deal of underwater photography for us to get our teeth into. What we do see looks great but the wildlife is minimal for the most part. Other than the shark, the wildlife we see most of all are seagulls and I can see those irritating little sods here.
7/10
Suspense: This wasn't too bad for suspense as we always have an inclination that the shark is out there and we get fairly regular interactions with it. There were also a few characters in danger at any one time. One of the issues with The Requin for example is that there were only two people trapped out at sea and we know that one will likely survive to tell the tale.
The use of real sharks made the film feels more tense too although they used the fin going under the water trick too many times for me. As I mentioned in the rating for shark quality the CGI really kills suspense for me. Mechanical models can also look bad but there is at least more effort that has gone into it and I've found that it also encourages some innovative practises.
6/10
Characters and Story: I felt that the characters were developed well enough and I found myself hoping that they'd all survive. I realise that I have said that in a few reviews but anyone who knows me will know that this is fairly atypical. The PTSD storyline worked well for me and wasn't what I was expecting when I'd read a synopsis that mentioned a sister's tragic death. Flashbacks are a real aspect to PTSD although I'm unsure why Nic would have flashbacks to events she wasn't present for. Teressa Liane (Nic) certainly did her homework on the subject however and in at least one interview I watched for research she talks about what she did to understand the impact of that condition.
Annie's character arc was fine too. She developed from the youngest sibling with few cares in the world to a tough-as-old-boots heroine figure who has a will to live that drives the other characters on. I don't think there was much character development for Jodie by the end but I thought she was okay as a character too. I even felt sorry for Lisa, our only shark attack victim, as the group seemed to be close and good at looking out for one another. The actors in this film were attractive but that didn't mean that the film fell into the trap of having the characters display the emotional depth of a puddle as many creature features with good looking casts do. It is to the film's credit that it does more with it's cast, something I won't always be able to say when reviewing some of these films.
The story was okay and made enough diversions from the original to feel like it's own story. The fact that they decided they had to kill the shark was a nice change for example. It also tackles some heavy issues and Traucki discussed in an interview how the shark is a metaphor for domestic violence, hence the man in the grey suit stalking a group of women with the intention of brutalising them.
6/10
Watchability: It's shot in a nice part of the world, the cast seem to be good enough to keep me giving a toss about what happens to them and the (real) shark is as magnetic as always. I feel like certain things did get a bit repetitive however, such as people falling in the water and the shark fin appearing and then disappearing.
3/5
Other factors: Traucki actually says that he didn't want to make the first Reef film anything like Jaws as he knew he couldn't compete but I did see a couple of references in this film to the 1975 classic. It didn't overdo it though and they wouldn't be immediately obvious to anyone who wants
an obsessive fan. Other than that, the music wasn't particularly notable and there isn't anything that jumps out at me to add points for.
1/5
Total - 31/50
Ratings for this on review sites were a little nicer than for The Requin but are still much more negative than for the first one. I think that's harsh. I enjoyed the film and, whilst it isn't as good as the first one in my opinion, it still has plenty of plus points. A lot of negative reviews are comparing the film to Jaws, which is often the case with shark films but as Andrew Traucki pointed out, you aren't going to beat Jaws when it comes to shark films.
The idea of the shark as a metaphor is a good one and it is perhaps surprising that we don't see this more, given both the fear they inspire in people (warranted or not) and the fact that Sigmund Freud analysed sharks appearing in dreams.
I thought the film was worth a watch and I'd recommend it to you, dear reader. It isn't the best shark film you'll ever see but there was enough here to keep me entertained and I can now say I've liked all three Traucki films that I've seen.
The League Table So Far
The Reef – 41
The Reef: Stalked - 31
Mako: The Jaws of Death – 27 The Requin - 21
Cruel Jaws - 16
Words by Jamie Tingle
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