Movie review - "Open Water" (2004) ***

Low budget films need a gimmick to help them along and this one's got a terrific one - actually chucking the actors in the water with sharks!(One shudders to think of the OHS issues on this). That alone makes the film worth while - they're in there and the sharks are circling around and you feel this tension. The middle third of the film is best. The rest isn't as strong, waiting for them to die. The waiting is actually more effective than the deaths when they come. The opening scenes,which could have easily been used to flesh out the characters are bit,don't really (I note there is some gratuitous nudity to keep the punters watching til they get in the water). And sometimes the footage really is amateur hour - I mean, I know it was low budget, and understand why,say, the stuff in the water looks a bit rough at times - but even the scenes where they are getting in the car from a house are whited outwith poor sound. Surely these could have been done a bit better. Why couldn't Aussies have made this story?