Thrash

If there is one category of horror films that never seems to end, it is the category known as shark movies. I have seen it all, sharks armed with laser guns rided by nazis, sharks that can swim in sand, i have even seen sharks that roar in one of the most hated sequels ever, Jaws: The Revenge of course, ( and yes i do own a copy of the book The Shark Is Roaring - The Story Of Jaws: The Revenge, because i had to read the bakground story of how this film was made ). The amount of different kinds of shark movies seems endless, every single year we get so many different versions of shark attack films that i will admit, a lot of people are very creative coming up with cray plots. If you just want 2 fun B horror movies there are two films released in 2016, produced by the legendary B movie production company The Asylum. The titles that you should check out is Empire Of The Sharks, as well as Planet Of The Sharks. Both films seems to be inspired by the classic Mad Max franchise, while you also feel some vibes from the 1995 classic film Waterworld. The acting is bad in both films, but the characters are fun and the special effects are actually not as terrible as you might have expected. Check these films out on streaming, VOD or physical media. Now, let us stay within the year of 2016 for a while. Because this year we actually got one of the best shark movies in many years, and that is the shark horror movie known as The Shallows. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra ( the director of the beloved horror film Orphan from 2009 ), this film tell the story of a young woman named Nancy Adams ( great performance by actress Blake Lively, who you should see in Ben Affleck´s excellent heist film The Town ), who loves to surf and travel to the same beach in Mexico that her mother used to surf while she was pregnant with Nancy. However, this becomes a pure nightmare when she is forced to survive from a shark attacking her out in the ocean. The Shallows is a very intense survival horror film with really solid acting from actress Blake Lively, and the shark scenes are very well made, including beautuful cinematography by Flavio Labiano ( who worked on the effective action thriller Non-Stop with Liam Neeson ). Definetely worth a watch on streaming unless you prefer a physical copy. Since we get shark movies every single year i wasn´t surprised to see that Netflix released one simply called Thrash. A survival horror film with sharks sounds like a  fun idea, but is this film any good at all or did Thrash deliver more entertainment than i ever would have expected?

The town of Annieville, South Carolina awaits the arrival of Category 5 hurricane Henry. When the storm hits and the storm surge destroy the town´s sea wall, causing Annieville to flood and cause massive damage to the entire town. A tanker truck carrying aniumal blood spills out in the ocean drawing in sharks across the flooded town. A group of survivirs will have to figure out how to get passed the sharks, before they are a part of their food chain.

If some of you remember the 2019 survival horror thriller known as Crawl, you might remember it was about a father and a daughter trying to survive against alligators. But not in the environment we are used to see, in over flooded houses during a hurricane which is a very interesting idea for a film with alligators. I really enjoyed Crawl for trying to go back to old school animal horror films such as the 1980 cult cinema classic Alligator. In some ways you could say that Thrash tries to follow a similar pattern as the 2019 film Crawl and im definetely on board for that. Obviously there is a big difference between alligators and sharks, so we can´t really say both of these films are similar when it comes to the plot of this film. Let´s talk about what Thrash manage to do well considering this is a survival horror film. The hurricane scenes are effective, you almost feel like you are at the location and experience the horrible weather conditions. The shark attacking scenes are far more bloodier than i expected so that was a nice surprise. In a lot of shark movies on a limited budget you barely see anyone getting their arm eaten, but you get to see this in Thrash and im grateful for that. Sometimes it´s just nice to see sharks rip bodies apart, it just takes me back to the wonderful summer days of the 1980´s. The acting in general is actually pretty good, i can´t say for each actor of course but, actress Whitney Peak ( who i recognized from the Disney + movie Hocus Pocus 2 ) especially surprised me as her character Dakota. A young woman struggling with agoraphobia, and i feel that she is able to capture a realistic portait of how someone may struggle with an anxiety disorder. The character known as Lisa ( played well by actress Phoebe Dynevor ) give this film some depth as well, considering she is pregnant fighting to survive, to be able to give birth to her son. Actor Djimon Hounsou is of course a highlight in this film. A survival horror film especially focused on female characters, so does thiss really work? Yes, it does. This is the kind of film you just have to take as pure entertainment, the plot is thin and it´s not original at all but Thrash deliver as a pure shark film. Does it have issues? Yes, but i honestly don´t care, This is a film made specifically for you who just want a fun popcorn film at home. Director Tommy Wirkola ( mostly known for the Norwegian horror comedy classic Dead Snow, including the crazy sequel ) have made a simple, yet fun shark survival horror film. You really don´t have to know more, just go watch Trash on Netflix and enjoy yourself.

Rating: DDD