The Shallows Review 7/10

I went to see The Shallows the other day purely because the showing was at a convenient time. I didn't have high expectations.

The film centres around Nancy, a young medical student who recently lost her mother. Nancy decides to visit the secret beach her mother once visited while pregnant with Nancy, she goes alone due to a flaky friend. 

Nancy goes surfing and finds herself trapped on a rock while a shark circles her. She gains a deep leg bite early on in the film and spends the duration of the film sitting on a rock tending to her wound and thinking of a way to get back to shore unharmed. 

Very simple storyline, seems like just you typical shark horror and it some ways it is but in other ways, its was highly enjoyable! And I was in fact very impressed!

Nancy played by Blake Lively could have easily been an annoying heroine, lots of crying and too many sexy close ups but Lively acted her role impressively well and I genuinely felt a connection with the character. She played the fine line between fear and bravery which was a refreshing change from your standard horror movie heroine. 

The movie kept you hooked from beginning to (almost) the end. 

I feel that for the most part the effects and the shark itself looked really impressive, the movie featured some beautiful shots of the beach and the surf, there as also a scene that I found particularly terrifying which included a whole load of jellyfish. 

Little fact about me, I am extremely scared of jellyfish. This particular scene had me biting my nails and perched on the edge of my seat. I don't feel that this movie was particularly scary and I don't feel it was meant to be, it was more about the tension and the build up to the big reveal of the shark but the jellyfish scene really got me. 

My favourite part however which really set the bar a little higher for me was the seagull! Throughout  pretty much the whole movie an injured seagull sat on the rock with Nancy, it was a really clever way to give Nancy a more human feel, she spoke to the seagull and sympathised with him. I know it sounds ridiculous to explain but you'd need to see the movie to truly understand what I mean! 

Now for the criticism, the ending was just silly. The whole film had been solidly good until the ending where it felt like the film makers just didn't know how to end it so they just threw in a load of over the top bullshit. The ending could have been so much simpler and so much better. 

Overall, I really did enjoy The Shallows which was a nice surprise! 

Have you seen it? What did you think?