OPEN WATER

Susan and Daniel are a happy couple on vacation in the Bahamas. They are passionate about scuba diving, and the reason for their vacation is to explore and admire the beauty of the tropical seas' depths. However, things will not go as planned, and after an excursion, upon resurfacing from the waters, a shocking truth awaits Susan and Daniel: the support boat that brought them there has left, forgetting them in the open sea. After some moments of confusion and hope, the two will begin an atrocious nightmare when they discover they are not alone in those waters but accompanied by a pack of hungry sharks lurking right beneath them. There is a name for that morbid fear of the open sea, that terror that grips some people to the point of causing them to experience intense anxiety when they come into contact (even just visually) with the beach; in some cases, depending on the phobic degree, even just 'talking about the sea' could induce the subject to an alteration of their emotional state. 'Open Water', in its own way, seems interested in exploring this phobia, and Chris Kentis creates a small film, with a very 'real-TV' flavor, that with very few elements manages to be much more frightening than most horror films produced and made in recent decades. Disorientation, agitation, anguish, but above all anxiety... these are the prevailing emotional states to which the viewer is constantly and harshly subjected during the viewing of 'Open Water', a viewing that manages to be harsh and disheartening (in some ways it could even be defined as 'painful') even for those who do not suffer from thalassophobia. The two abandoned scuba divers, Susan and Daniel, might seem at first glance to be the protagonists of the film, but in the end, the true protagonist of the work can only be the sea and everything that lurks beneath it, giving life, consequently, to a reality still little explored by man, unknown and unpredictable, in one word: the unknown. And it is precisely here that one of the greatest strengths of 'Open Water' lies, its irresistible desire to play with the fear of the unknown, or rather of that which is known but which one does not have the courage to admit at a purely conscious level. Susan and Daniel are lost in the middle of the sea and surrounded by nothing; the only forms of life lurk right beneath them but still far from their eyes, at an imperceptible level if not through touch. As expert scuba divers, they know what forms of life can lurk beneath them, but precisely as slaves to the same experience, they also hope not to find what is instead likely to be there. Nevertheless, everything can still be traced back to that great concept of the unknown mentioned a few lines above, which reaches its maximum expression in the terrifying sequence where the two lost individuals, in the middle of the night and during a summer storm, find themselves prey to something lurking beneath them but that they cannot see. The strong sense of unease that makes 'Open Water' great cannot even be held back by the concern 'It's just a movie! It's just a movie!' because the subject of Chris Kentis takes inspiration from a real event that occurred in 1998 to two American scuba divers: Eileen and Tom Lonergan. The two were abandoned by the support boat during a dive in the Great Australian Barrier Reef, and their bodies were never found again. A few days later, and in the same area, a shark was caught, and in its stomach, a digital camera was found, thus quickly linking the two events. Chris Kentis, along with his wife Laura Lau, upon learning of this heartbreaking news, began working on what would later become the plot of 'Open Water', imagining what the dynamics of the situation might have been, wanting to create a link capable of connecting the disappearance of the two divers to the discovery of the camera in the shark's stomach. To infuse a greater sense of realism, Kentis shoots his film entirely using digital cameras and with a style that imposes itself halfway between the film and the documentary (especially in the first part), thus achieving a masterful result that undoubtedly contributes to the success of the film. But Kentis, in addition to having demonstrated his enormous skills behind the camera (in addition to being the director of the work, he was also the sole camera operator), managed to use the limited budget available (no more than 130,000 dollars) to its best advantage, avoiding any limitations related to 'economic poverty' from weighing on the final result. Thus, the crew of 'Open Water' was reduced to the essential (no more than a handful of people, including the two actors), and most of the budget was invested in financing shark experts responsible for safety, constantly present on the 'set' to ensure the safety of the two protagonists surrounded by a real pack of sharks... but domesticated. Excellent performances were also offered by the two lead actors, Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis, who were up to the task of convincingly embodying the two unfortunate abandoned divers among the ocean waves and capable of acting for hours on end among a pack of sharks while wearing a protective iron suit under their wetsuit. In conclusion, 'Open Water' certainly represents one of the most interesting and fresh films among all those that have reached our screens from the beginning of the new millennium to today. A film that, although not a true horror, manages to put the viewer's nerves to the test and to scare. Perhaps it will not satisfy all tastes due to its semi-documentary style and deliberately rough aesthetics, but it will certainly not leave anyone indifferent. Trivia: In 2006, directed by Hans Horn, a fake sequel titled 'Adrift' (working title 'Open Water 2') was made and distributed. Although the situation remains the same (with some minor variations), the connections with Chris Kentis' film are practically non-existent. Even in terms of quality, there is an abyss between the two films.