Blanchard Ryan, Cristina Zenarro, Daniel Travis

Shot on digital video with a pair of unknown actors (Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis) who tread water for most of the film's brisk 79-minute running time, Open Water is a fact-based exercise i...( read more  read more... )n primal fear that will scare the socks off anyone who dreads death from the deep, but it's familiar stuff if you've ever watched "Shark Week" on the Discovery Channel (which is mentioned in writer-director Chris Kentis's economical screenplay). If you can't accept that a trendy young couple could be accidentally abandoned during an open-sea diving excursion (but hey, it really happened!), then you'll surely be hooked by the intense what's-gonna-happen anxiety that escalates when the horrified vacationers realize they've got unwanted company. It's too easy to call Open Water a poor man's Jaws, and the movie's too realistically frightening to be compared to the popcorn thrills of Deep Blue Sea, so what you've got here is a shark movie that creates its own little low-budget niche. Before placing his actors in actual proximity to sharks, Kentis betrays them with some silly, bickering dialogue, but with adequate realism in its favor, Open Water offers a perfect excuse to stay on the beach. --Jeff Shannon

Flixster Users

30% liked it

48,922 ratings

Critics

72% liked it

187 critics

R, 81 min.

Directed by: Chris Kentis

Release Date: August 6, 2004

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DVD Release Date: December 28, 2004

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Stats: 3,497 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (3,497)


  • September 22, 2009
    I like it, it?s like a Dogma version of jaws!
  • December 31, 2008
    Pending Review...
  • July 1, 2008
    Susan and Daniel, lost and alone, floating in the middle of a vast expanse of sinister saltiness from which there is no escape, no relief. They have been left to fend for and defend themselves. Armed with nothing but a diving knife and their wits, they are about to battle an unse...( read more)en menace that has for centuries practiced the fine art of eating. Open Water wants to be the new Jaws, to take Steven Spielberg's classic cat-and-mouse aquatic thriller and bring it back to its anthropomorphic roots. It also wants to celebrate the newfound freedom and creative dexterity in the emerging digital filmmaking format. It so vehemently craves to turn its home movie handcrafting into something special and epic that it only barely succeeds on sheer force of will alone. That it occasionally comes up short, never completely immersing the audience in its "lost at sea" tenets, is not really important. Writer/Director Chris Kentis films the pair in a digital documentary-style that adds authenticity to the most primal horror. The comparisons to the terror of The Blair Witch Project are obvious to anyone with a film I.Q. "Jaws Meets Blair Witch" had become a cliché before the critics had even left the first screening at Sundance. But it's entirely appropriate. The minimalist technique of two people bobbing up and down in the water like chum can only work if it allows its tone to grow around the two performances which are good.
  • June 26, 2008
    For a movie that takes place in the middle of the ocean, it's pretty decent and ultimately, tragic.
  • June 10, 2008
    Nice, I liked it alot. Something new to the genre.
  • November 3, 2009
    An effectively terrifying movie not due to gore (there is practically none) but to the sheer psychological terror and the dread that escalates mercilessly, minute by minute. There is no story to speak of, and the viewer may be left feeling empty at the end because there is no rea...( read more)l "point" to it all, but they will likely be enthralled for the whole duration.
  • November 1, 2009
    This is a simple low budget movie that manages to keep you riveted to your seat for the entire film. Don't expect a big budget action movie but a well made independent film.
  • October 14, 2009
    Not sure why it isn't better rated. Gives you an idea of what you'd face if you were left behind... And this is based on a true story.
  • October 3, 2009
    Seems to offer something new in the way of a horror/thriller.
  • September 16, 2009
    Love-it or hate-it film. I had mixed feelings. I usually end up hating independent films that literally have a budget that could be betterly used for buying some chips and a soda at the store near your home, but this pushed the envelope in the sense that it put a lot of effort fo...( read more)r creating a film with certain thrilling and suspenseful aspects that make Hollywood films cliched and dull. This film succeeds in the creation of a good atmosphere and a realistic ending, despite the horrendous performances and the lame script. An unexpected surprise.

    38/100

Critic Reviews


August 20, 2004
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

Considered in its ham-handed entirety, Open Water feels more of an exercise in cinematic sadism. full review

August 9, 2004
David Edelstein, Slate

I'm sorry, but that's entertainment? full review

August 7, 2004
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

We, the audience, shuffle out of the theater, feeling drained and punished. full review

August 6, 2004
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

It's a very pure, basic kind of terror, nail-bitingly fun to watch; made more so by the startling realism of the sharks. full review

August 6, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Rarely, but sometimes, a movie can have an actual physical effect on you. It gets under your defenses and sidesteps the 'it's only a movie' reflex and creates a visceral feeling that might as well be ... full review

August 5, 2004
A.O. Scott, The New York Times

This minimalist thriller evokes some deep and primal fears, but it is ultimately too under-dramatized to provoke anything more intense than squirming discomfort. full review

August 5, 2004
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

You can feel the water, stretching against an unsheltering sky, seep into your bones. full review

July 23, 2004
Nick Schager, Filmcritic.com

more teasing than terrifying, failing to achieve the nerve-wracking suspense that his concept (and the movie's buzz) suggests full review

View more Open Water reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • MelissaAnnLegard
    February 1, 2008
    This has got to be the worst movie I have ever seen.
    I mean who wants to watch a movie about two people sitting in the water the whole movie hoping to be rescued?
    They both die in the end.
    If I wanted to watch any other shark movie I would watch Jaws.
    At least it's worth watching.
  • xBrackishx
    March 12, 2007
    My dad bought it thinking it was gonna be an action packed movie.... it turns out it the worst movie i can ever own i want my money back!
  • nymphetaminegirlxx
    March 3, 2007
    The movie poster/cover thing makes it look interesting but, although cliche, looks can be decieving. This is probably the worst recent film made. It's slow. It's boring. But if you like staring at water for an hour or so then you'll most likely enjoy it. It'd be so much better if you actually got to SEE the guy get eaten by the shark, but NO. He just HAD to be eaten during a thunderstorm, while it was dark. T____T Gah. If anything this whole movie is a really REALLY bad imitation of Jaws. Whatever you do, don't pay attention to the reviews on the DVD cover. The reviewers were either blind, stoned, had extremely bad judgement, or all of the above.
  • MorpheusOne
    October 15, 2006
    You know what! This movie did not have a happy ending. And it is, by & large, the American movie goers who think that having a happy ending is so vastly important to a happy world, even if what you are watching right then & there is a movie! Wake the f*** up! Try a movie like The Vanishing (The French version, NOT the American version!) and see something similar in terms of an "unhappy ending" and learn to face the real world!

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Open Water Trivia


  • In which movie does Blanchard Ryan appear with his girlfriend in the ocean?  Answer »
  • Jaws meets the Blair Witch in this true tale of terror. A holidaying couple are left behind on a Scuba diving trip to face isolation, storms and sharks. Name the movie.?  Answer »
  • Create a movie title. ____ Crystal Open ____  Answer »
  • The film Open Water was based on a true story?  Answer »

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