By Becca Johnson - January 29, 2025
Richard Dreyfuss starring in a shark movie, after blowing audiences away 50 years ago with his stellar turn in Spielberg’s classic creature feature Jaws, is bound to capture the attention of film fans across the world.
Into the Deep, directed by Christian Sesma (Lights Out) and starring Scout Taylor-Compton (Halloween, 2007) and Stuart Townsend (Queen of the Damned) alongside Dreyfuss, follows a group of divers searching for sunken treasure who wind up witnessing the murder of drug dealers by modern-day pirates. But, a killer great white is determined not to let any of them escape its waters. Sound convoluted? That’s because it is. Throwing way too many ideas at the wall and hoping they’ll stick, Into the Deep does offer some semi-entertaining action that’s unfortunately amidst a poor storyline, disengaging dialogue and weak performances that bring zero excitement into the shark sub-genre.
Straight off the bat, it’s plain to see that Into the Deep doesn’t know what it wants to be. Attempting to tackle complex themes of anxiety through its main character alongside plot points surrounding pirates, drug dealers, lost treasure and great white sharks, the movie bites off far more than it can chew. No idea is developed to its highest potential, meaning many beats feel forced in without a true place in this underwater world. Cassidy (Scout Taylor-Compton) is an interesting character with a troubled past and plenty of demons to battle, but this is soon disregarded and wrapped up far too quickly to have anything pivotal to say. Plenty of the themes and plot points at play would be serviceable on their own, but thrown all together makes for a messy, unfocussed watch.
Into the Deep tries to serve as a creature feature, thriller and character drama all at once, which means it doesn’t fit comfortably inside any of its attempted genres. Not only does this result in a dull affair that feels all over the place, but it ignores the reason we’ve all pressed play - sharks. Audiences don’t care for convoluted family drama and pirates vs. drug dealers, we care about being entertained by our terrifying underwater beasts. This fun element of the movie unfortunately gets lost to un-intriguing sub-plots that divert our attention from where it should be.
Speaking of sharks, their usage is far too slim for this to become a memorable creature feature. Not making an appearance inside our central plot until quite a way through the film, it takes a long time to get to the good stuff, with the writers seemingly forgetting the most likely reason why the majority of viewers are here. When sharks are front and centre, the film does delightfully offer some fun carnage in the way of gore, action and kills, making it even more of a shame that we don’t have more scenes of this ilk. The danger and peril our characters are in can certainly be felt, there’s a tangible sense of stress and urgency and those shark infested waters sure are entertaining when they’re on screen. Due to the films budget, however, these sequences don’t look as impressive as what we’re used to, which can often distract and take away from the horror the filmmakers want us to feel. Both the practical and digital effects leave much to be desired.
Quite a talented cast is rustled up here, helmed by Scout Taylor-Compton who has more than proved her acting chops, especially within the horror/thriller genres. Her role as Cassidy doesn’t allow her to show her range, but she does the best with what she’s given. The films marketing is mostly relying on the star power put forward by Richard Dreyfuss, who is expectedly good, but doesn’t have as much screen-time as most would hope. Purely being diminished to jargon-heavy dialogue and popping up at the end to give an out of place speech on the importance of sharks within our world, he is sorely underutilised.
The rest of the cast are just fine, though it seems the issues lie more within the writing than on the ability of the actors. The dialogue is bland and basic, the characters are one dimensional and each individual is painstakingly generic, with a lack of distinct personality and too heavy a focus on tropes. It’s a shame some finer tuning within the script did not take place, as these actors likely would’ve been up to the task of delivering something more unique and less convoluted.
Into the Deep is a film that occasionally boasts some fun action sequences, and whenever the poor-looking sharks are around, there is some dumb enjoyment to be had. The cast do try their best despite no-one standing out, and it’s always fun to have Dreyfuss around, especially where sharks are concerned. However, a poor script with a lack of development, dull characters, bad effects and a messy story that has a few too many plot-points ultimately make Into the Deep a disappointment. A better focus on its emotional core and creatures would’ve improved it tenfold.
Available now on digital platforms & physical February 3
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