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As a director and writer of From the Depths, I have to commend Jose Montesinos for surprising me. To put it simply, when I sat down to view a shark film from the co-director of 5 Headed Shark Attack, my expectations were understandably low. What offbeat and original supernatural, shark, and survivor’s guilt mix did I just watch!?
It’s been a year since Liz lost her sister, Payton, as well as her boyfriend Seth to a shark attack. In an attempt to get her life together, she struggles to overcome her past that just won’t let her move on, no matter how hard she tries.
She is haunted by swarming sharks that fly through the sky, readying themselves for an attack. To top things off, Liz is plagued by nightmares and the ghosts of Seth and Payton. Instead of trying to help her cope, they just reminisce about the past and their deaths.
Producers for From the Depths on IMDb describe the movie as follows: “A psychological thriller shark film with comedic undertones. Picture if the producers of Sharknado hired David Lynch to produce a shark thriller within 7 days using 30k dollars.” Thankfully, I did not notice any signs of Sharknado influences but the rest is pretty accurate. For the most part, it is an odd, at times almost unreal fusion of genres that escapes categorization for most of its running time.
Are the ghosts the product of Liz’s guilt? That is what her therapist (Liz Fenning, Flight 666, San Andreas Mega Quake) believes. The ghost of Peyton says that she understands the reason behind such guilt. She knew of the affair between Seth and let the shark take her instead of pulling her to safety.
The ghosts are, of course, inspired by Jack from An American Werewolf in London; all decay, witty banter, and sarcasm, not happy with being dead. They are, however, adamant she splits up with her girlfriend Roberta (Terra Strong, Zoombies 2, The Litch). That seems an odd demand, all things considered. Is it some fear of commitment? Or some form of revenge from the grave?
From The Depths plays its cards too close to the chest and doesn’t give much away. Some scenes, such as a shark attack in a swimming pool, are clearly hallucinations, but what if that is not the case? As a portrait of someone succumbing to madness or ghost story, the film is gripping, and it held my attention.
The cast and crew of From the Depths deserve a lot of praise for that. Even with budget cutoffs and a micro shoot, creating something like this is amongst the hardest tasks. KU Shark is a perfect example, it is not hard to believe that scenes of a shark floating in the hallway or a Liz talking to ghosts would’ve become a source of unintentional humor. The same goes for Liz’s conversations with the ghosts. At the very least, Liz didn’t overact, nor did she try to use cheap scares or laughs to amuse the audience. Somehow, it still feels like they are having a conversation that should vaguely resemble the topic at hand.
Fortunately, they did not set out to try and get too colourful with the effects which would be beyond their capabilities. See, Seth and Peyton are almost fully made up sufficiently to appear dead. Luckily for the filmmakers, the CGI shark works most of the time. When it does not, the filmmakers are wise enough to increase their quality of the shots instead of the quantity.
There is so much satisfaction from seeing these people succeed, particularly, the ones who have links to The Asylum. After being stuck in their shitfest, they deserve a chance to show what they can do with quality material. And as for the depths, ‘The Depths’ is certainly quality material. Well, apart from the last sequence, which to be honest, it took so much away, something the film definitely could’ve done without.
From The Depths was featured in last year’s Another Hole in The Head Film Festival in December and later It ITN distribution scooped it up. You can keep track of their formal website and Facebook, or the film’s own Facebook page for updates. And if you would like to see more reviews, check out the rest on Movies and Mania for their second thoughts on it.
To watch more movies like Trapped in the Depths of A Cave (2005) visit 123Movies.
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