Is this some elaborate prank?
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keith123300-1 — 15 years ago(May 29, 2010 06:59 PM)
This isn't a Hollywood film, it's a raw and realistic film.
The plot and character development that you say you were waiting for would have spoilt the film completely. To have any kind of elaborate storytelling would be a mistake for this film.
If you really got stranded in the ocean then this is what it would be like. To portray it any other way would be pointless. This sin't some cheap entertainment popcorn flick or even a thriller, it's a portrayal of sheer reality. -
sweavo — 15 years ago(June 10, 2010 06:35 AM)
But you do get character development. You see their relationship put through trials even though almost nothing happens on the screen, always two heads and a load of blue. You get the slow processing through all the emotions from idignation to blame, to anger, to despair, and the way the two people express their feelings towards one another; the way each reacts to their partner's danger and injuries. It's no masterpiece but I was impressed how much they managed to get into a movie essentially about floating about helpless.
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Moishar — 15 years ago(June 15, 2010 08:20 AM)
Hi,are you seriously angry&insulted or you are trying to be funny? No offense, from reading your post i can tell you are a very very superior being as well as a very smart person,but Susan did not DROWN herself,she was pulled downPoof Gone.She took off her floaters because she has given up&knew sooner or later she was going to die. Second,seriously,what do you want them to do?Cry&scream for the whole movie?If you want to watch something with more action&emotions,go watch Deep Blue Sea, for those sharks are very intelligent with micro-chips,just like how intelligent you are.
Ooops,pardon moi monsieur,i am a very stupid person to really get why you are insulted anyways. -
eru0527 — 11 years ago(May 17, 2014 08:31 AM)
Yeah she SPOILERS definitely drowned herself. Absolutely no question. She even took a huge clenching her body and holding her breath like one would do if they wanted to go under water/sink.
And I agree that this, Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity were good. It's not the best films ever made, but I think they are above the average/median movie I see.
These films, I won't call them "horror" because many people only call films that have many bloody deaths that (though that is actually a slasher), but these films that show you very little of the menace that is around you I find to be very much more effective than when you see the ghost/killer/whatever all the time. I mean I even think Cloverfield was an incredibly tense movie because of how it was filmed, though that was just suspense not "horror"
The Blair Witch did it best out of TBWP, Open Water and PA. And I'm not only talking about "found footage" style movies, I think any horror film should show very little direct shots of the horror terrorizing the characters. But if we exclude Open Water and talk only found footage I have to say I love that genre, because it's narration from one fixed point of view, very effective and also it gives a reason to let much happen just slightly off-screen. Which might be hard to have a reason for in a regularly styled film, like constantly barely missing to film the monster in Cloverfield or having the camera turned off when things happen in the blair witch.
I love it when high tension films do a slow-burn and not telling/showing 100 % of the story until it finally flames up. I'm mostly thinking about horror films but it worked very well in Cloverfield too. -
hottmale_____ — 15 years ago(June 19, 2010 06:48 PM)
Totally agree. Definitely up there as the worst film I've ever seen.
As for people moaning about spoilers.. there are no spoilers as nothing actually happens. The movie is garbage so if you've not seen it then don't bother!
Can't believe this is getting mentioned in the same breath as the Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity which, lets be fair, are 2 of the best low-budget horror films ever made. Open Water is up there with the worst. -
ringram — 15 years ago(June 28, 2010 03:01 PM)
Well, I have to say I liked the film very much. The film is so simple yet holds interest and tension throughout. The end is pure pathos. So refreshingly un-Hollywood, shows that engaging thought provoking and entertaining films can be made on the tiniest budget.
I re-watched it with my girlfriend last night, she gets bored with films very rapidly (her comments on Avatar are unprintable!), she liked this film.
Those of you who don't like it aren't wrong, you just don't like it. Likewise, those of us that do like it are not wrong either
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robsea32 — 15 years ago(July 17, 2010 07:18 AM)
** SPOILER WARNING ***
I think everyone is certainly entitled to their own opinion on this I'd just like to add my own 2 cents in comparing with the aforementioned films.
I've seen Paranormal Activity, Blair Witch Project, and Open Water. I found BW more grating than scary, although it picks up some steam towards the end. The ending was pretty scary. I only saw it twice, at home on VHS when I was 18 back in 2000 or so.
I saw Paranormal Activity in the theater and frankly found it quite laughable and ludicrous. Particularly annoying was the boyfriends obsession with filming the events happening even despite the risk to their lives and the obvious harm it was causing his girlfriend. Second only to that is the lazily orchestrated plot development of "the one person that can help you is out of town for an undisclosed amount of time, so you are better off staying put until they show up despite the incredible danger, because this thing uhhh.. could follow you?" Yeah that sounds good enough, put that in the script. I think perhaps if I had any fear or belief in ghosts that maybe it would have scared me more. Perhaps if I'd seen it in my creaky old house instead of a state of the art cineplex, I would have been afraid. I doubt it though, they brought too much attention to what made it so hard to suspend my disbelief and in the process, yanked me right out of the movie.
Open Water on the other hand, is terrifying to me pretty much the whole way through. Once those initial two boats vanish off the horizon and all that can be seen is miles of ocean and the occasional shark fin a sense of dread just grows in my stomach and eats away at me for the next hour.
I left Blair Witch a little disturbed, I left Paranormal Activity wishing I had my money back, but Open Water made me feel sick as I was leaving the theater and so glad to be alive when I stepped outside into the parking lot.
In it's defense I think the acting is a big part of what makes it so effective. In BW and PA, you have people screaming hysterically all the time, which to me is extremely unrealistic. To me, it's used as a cue to tell the audience "this part is scary, because it's very loud, you should get scared now". Besides, anyone who has cried or screamed for a long time realizes that all that makes one very tired and worn down. In Open Water, these characters subconsciously realize they have limited resources that are not able to be replenished; there is no food and no water that is drinkable.
In real life, when people are faced with only a glimmer of hope, they latch onto it like in Open Water. When that glimmer starts to fade, they ignore it for as long as they can. They talk about other things anything to distract them from the elephant in the room and that elephant is the realization that death is staring you in the face and that there is nothing you can do about it there is no way to fight it because there is no enemy to fight, all you have is time, just waiting to die. I think a lot of movies would portray accepting death through teary eyed hospital bed monologues, but sometimes death doesn't strike you comfortably in bed, sometimes it gets you out in the middle of nowhere, exhausted, irritated, hungry, and hopeless. -
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Auntiemaim — 15 years ago(September 18, 2010 07:55 PM)
jbowser09, I could not agree more. The acting was the first thing that made me look at my man incredulously. A promising concept, poorly executed. SO much more could have and should have been done with this.
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Blackace — 13 years ago(March 28, 2013 05:47 PM)
@Judimex
The acting was some of the worse Ive ever seen in a movie.
That was one of the reasons it didn't work. The acting was horrendous. There was no character development that drew me into their world and made me feel for what they were going through. Seriously, but the time the shark appeared on screen, I yelling at the screen, "Eat them!! Eat them!!" I just wanted the movie to end as quickly as possible.
I knew this movies was going to suck, but my wife begged me to take her, as we usually see movies I want to see. So I had to sit through 90mins of garbage. I did see most of Open Water 2, which isn't much better, but at least there are more characters and major goal to save the life of a baby. It was a bit more interesting. -
euromarkusx — 15 years ago(December 06, 2010 12:31 PM)
What were expecting to see? X-wings? Speeding boat chases? Aliens? A romantic comedy?
The film shows 2 people who are no longer in control of their lives, and their fate is sealed even before they surface from their dive.
The film illustrates very well, the stages of human emotion, as the divers deal with their slowly eroding situation.- Bewilderment - Where is the boat?
- Denial - This can't be happening
- Reassurance - The boat will be back
- Realization The boat will not be back
- Anger - Why did THEY do this to us (boat crew)?
- Blame - Why did YOU do this to US (hurried vacation)?
- Fear - Loss of control, the unknown (the sharks closing in)
- Panic - Loss of self (sharks attack)
- Grieving - (she holds him)
- Indifference - ("he" is gone, she releases "body")
- Hopelessness - She's alone (sees sharks pull body under)
- Acceptance - Knows she's next (tons of sharks)
- Peace - All fear is gone (her empty stare)
- Empowerment - takes back control (won't let sharks kill her)
- Release - Suicide (releases BC and sinks)
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