Friday, August 17, 2018

Script review - "Into the Darkness" by Anthony Jaswiski (warning: spoilers)

This became The Shallows. It's an excellent one person thriller - well not really one person, there's also two surfers, a drunk, a kid, a seagull and the shark. It's a great role for the lead however - Nancy, the nurse student who can surf, stitch up her wound, fight off a shark.

The structure is solid. The writer throws in a buoy for her to clamber on - and a reefy rock. There's a drunk on the beach who steals her things, two other surfers one of whom has a go pro on his head. She uses jelly fish as an electric shield.

It's very well written. I loved Jaswiski's use of big print - very evocative. Nancy really goes through the wringer.

I havent seen the film. I read the synopsis on line - some interesting changes, such as in the final film Nancy doesn't lose her leg, she talks to her dad not her brother, she wants to be a doctor not a nurse, she kills the shark via impalling it not through shooting a flare on the oily water, the seagull lives whereas in the film he dies. I don't know why these changes were made they don't necessarily improve things. Actually yes I do - to soften it.

No comments: