Something in the Water

That our Editor, whenever he is on holiday, regales us with stories of terrible bouts of nausea he suffers from claiming that there’s something in the water until we point out that that 15 pints of Stella with Sambuca chasers is more likely to be the cause (‘You’re fired!’- Ed). But the something in the water here is a shark in this years summer shark movie, a now almost annual event since the surprise hit of The Shallows back in 2018 and since then we have had 47 Metres Down and of course The Meg films amongst many others.

The set up for each of these has all differed and here the story is set up around four friends and their bride-to-be buddy Lizzie (Lauren Lyle) and her Caribbean wedding that sees them meet up for a hen night – (whatever happened to a big night out watching The Chippendales in Margate?) But there’s already a fractious relationship between Kayla (Natalie Mitson) and Meg (Hiftu Quasem) formerly a couple until they were on night out when Meg suffers an horrific beating in an homophobic attack by a chavvy girl gang. Still suffering from PTSD Meg has blamed Kayla for the attack and has not seen her since but on arrival at the Caribbean airport she finds Kayla has been sent by the others to pick her up. It’s the frostiest of meetings since Mr Frosty was presented the Mr Frost award by Mrs Frosty in the National Frost Awards on the frostiest day of the year.

But it’s an attempt by the three others to get them if not back together again then at least on talking terms and to that end Cam (Nicole Tieko Setsuko) has organised a boat trip to a remote island that’s actually a ruse to dump the warring couple there til they thrash out their differences. It won’t be the last time that there will be any thrashing out when the five do reunite a little later only to find one of them injured in a shark attack and quickly zip off to the safety of the boat and rush her to the hospital. At least they would do except that their what one of them does for captaining a boat is little better than what Caitlin Jenner did for women drivers and they all find themselves adrift at the sea with one of them now haemorrhaging blood.

The group of friends are left carrying a dead weight in much the same way that Happy Mondays had Bez and what follows is an engaging and snappy thriller. Low on budget there’s very little shark and gore in this one and like every shark film that has followed it remains in the shadow of the of Jaws. But it’s the friendship of the five that makes this more credible with the five Brit girls typically potty mouthed each representing a certain type of person. Cam is the lairy sexually liberated one – the type who returns from a girls holiday and single handily keeps STD clinics in business. Lizzie, the bride to be, is naïve and is the ginger one who risks skin cancer just by opening a travel brochure, and the relationship between former partners Kayla and Meg is credible and it is perhaps Ruth (Ellouise Shakespeare-Hart) whose role is perhaps least developed.

Something in the water moves briskly along running at a mere 86 minutes with likeable characters and is an antidote to the bloated mega-budget spectacle of The Meg franchise.

Related feature : The story behind the shot – Jaws

We had a laugh when we chatted to cast members Nicole Reiko Setsuko & Ellouise Shakespeare Hart…..