RED WATER

A hungry Bullshark, a shark capable of living even in freshwater, infests the tranquil and placid waters of Lake Barrett, sowing panic in the area. A bounty on its "fin" does not take long to open, but in the meantime, in those waters, the paths of the fisherman John Sanders, who, on his fishing boat and with his ex-wife, heads towards a rich oil field, and of a group of criminals searching for a treasure that lies at the bottom of the lake, will cross. The encounter between John and the criminals will be a bit turbulent, but something else will worsen the situation… In the vast landscape of beast movies, those that receive the most attention seem to be the films that focus on the figure of the shark; but these, in addition to being the most popular films, also turn out to be the most mediocre, as, most of the time, they involve bland products aimed at ether diffusion or direct-to-video. We are in 2003 when, without anyone particularly feeling the need, "Red Water – Terror Below" is produced and made for television commerce, that is, the usual beast movie for four cents that does nothing but drown in a truckload of clichés from the premises and that therefore would have no possibility of adequately stimulating the viewer's curiosity. But this film, all in all, manages quite well, offering a satisfying spectacle or, at least, superior to low expectations. Obviously, the flaws that the film presents are many and also quite evident, but quite predictable and justifiable since it is a film produced for television commerce; it is useless, therefore, to expect and/or demand particularly crude or violent scenes, sequences, and solutions that would have required high budgets and high doses of gore or splatter, as demanding this from such a film would really be looking for the proverbial hair in the egg. The aspect that can be most exposed to easy and justified criticism is undoubtedly the unexciting screenplay that alternates, in a somewhat too abrupt manner, the first and second act. In the first act, in fact, everything proceeds with too much slowness and staticity, the story struggles very much to get into the heart of the situation, and the shark receives very little attention (in the first 40 minutes, it does not even seem to be watching a beast movie); in the second act, on the other hand, the situation takes the right turn, and finally, it will be possible to see the big fish at work, and the events will begin to unfold with an accelerated and adequate rhythm. But setting aside the screenplay, which should have known how to handle the situation more effectively, everything else works rather well (obviously, we are always talking within television canons) and does not invite easy and gratuitous criticism. The direction, entrusted to a little-known Charles Robert Corner, is quite anonymous and does not lend itself to being either praised or mistreated: Corner moves quite well behind the camera but appears little involved in the project, thus generating a somewhat "cold" work; the names involved in the cast, although they will never shine in the firmament of Hollywood stars, are nevertheless quite convincing and credible in their role (surely worse has been seen in this type of products), and among them, Lou Diamond Phillips ("Bats" and "Supernova") can be cited in the role of John Sanders, who, with his mono-expressive face, does not manage to offer great performances, and Kristy Swanson (seen in the role of the young vampire hunter in the 1992 film "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") in the role of John's ex-wife, a Swanson who mysteriously manages not to age at all with the passing of the years. But what most enchants and surprises in "Red Water" is the dazzling performance of the shark, which does not exceed in size so as not to lose credibility and which is never made with crude CGI effects (characteristic of this type of film) but always with very realistic mechanical effects in the features and movements of the animal. In conclusion, "Red Water – Terror Below" is an honest beast movie that lets itself be sunk by a total lack of ideas but that, all in all, turns out to be a pleasant and well-made product. If the competition had been less and there had been fewer "similar" films (for not to say equal), it would have undoubtedly gained some points.