Let’s see. In 2016, “The Shallows” was a movie about a young woman surfer (Blake Lively) who hits the waves at a secluded Mexico beach and soon finds herself marooned on a rock offshore, along with an injured seagull, while a hungry Great White shark circles, waiting for her to become its hot meal.
Now in 2017, “47 Meters Down” is about two sisters who find themselves trapped in a shark cage deep in the waters off Mexico while these menacing eating-machine fish zip around.
Do I detect a trend here?
It’s as if an addendum has been added to the Handbook of Horror, right there in Article One that states: Young people who have sex will be pursued and/or killed by some determined, indestructible and armed maniac. Now there’s a new reality: Go into the water off Mexico and a shark or two or three will assume you are on the menu.
“47 Meters Down,” which did an OK $11 million at the box office during its opening weekend, is a tale of survival that keeps the tension level at high amps. With most of the action taking place under water, it is quite an achievement.
Lisa (Mandy Moore) and Kate (Claire Holt) are two sisters vacationing in Mexico. Lisa is having boyfriend problems and decries her boring life, especially in comparison to Kate’s adventurous existence. Little sis Kate has a remedy: We’re in Mexico; let’s hit the night life. They meet Louis (Yani Gellman) and Benjamin (Santiago Segura) and party down with these two guys. The men then entice the women to try an activity not mentioned in the brochures. They know a guy who offers people a chance to get into a shark cage, submerge and have up close and personal (and supposedly safe) encounters with sharks.
Kate’s all for it, but Lisa has reservations. Kate is persuasive, and the next morning the ladies meet up with Louis and Benjamin at a dock. There they are greeted by Captain Taylor (Matthew Modine doing a toned down Quint, a la “Jaws”), and they are boated to a larger vessel several miles offshore on which the shark cage sits, awaiting its next plunge.
An already hyperventilating Lisa is even more apprehensive when she sees the dilapidated condition of the cage and the lifeline winch used to lower it into the sea. Despite this, she lies to Taylor, assuring him she has scuba experience, so that he signs off allowing the ladies to go into the cage.
Louis and Benjamin go down in the cage first and come up exuberant, their enthusiasm infectious. Lisa, still shaky, sets aside her anxieties and climbs into the cage with Kate and down they go.
The movie up to this point is pretty bland, but once Lisa and Kate are under water, “47 Meters Down” revs up. The expected malfunction occurs and soon the cage plummets to the bottom of the sea, 47 meters beneath the surface.
Once Lisa and Kate regain their wits, they begin to realize their dire predicament: first, the cage hatch has been wedged closed by winch debris; they have less than an hour of oxygen left in their tanks; the water at that depth is pretty murky; they are out of radio range of the boat; a rapid ascent from that depth could lead to the “bends,” i.e. nitrogen bubbles getting into the brain (See: “Jaws 2”). And, oh yeah, at least two sharks are in the vicinity and are even more lethal in an environment of very limited visibility.
What follows is a roller-coaster ride of emotions: fear, hope, despair and downright panic. The clock is ticking, in the form of their oxygen level gauges, and in order to maintain communications with the boat, the ladies have to vacate the relative safety of the cage — once the hatch has been liberated from being blocked — and ascend to a depth within range of the radio.
Director and co-writer Johannes Roberts (who collaborated on the script with Ernest Riera), manages to maintain the tension with a lurking sentiment of “what else can go wrong.” Then, just when it looks like things have been resolved, there is a twist.
So, “47 Meters Down” delivers as a horror/thriller venture. An amusing aspect of this movie is that during the opening credits, there was a seemingly endless listing of executive producers. In all, 21 EPs were listed, with the head honchos being Bob and Harvey Weinstein, proven film chiefs. In addition there were several other just plain “producers.” With all these chefs hovering over the pot, it’s a wonder the movie got made at all.
