Twenty 20-Sharks: The Reef (2010)

Twenty 20-Sharks is a chronological survey of shark attack movies. In this entry we’ll take a look at The Reef, a 2011 Australian thriller based on a true story.

I was going to start this piece by saying something like “we’re deep in the heart of Shark Week territory now”, but here’s a fun fact I bet you didn’t know: Discovery Channel started Shark Week in 1988! They’ve been doing that shit all the way back since Night of the Sharks! So instead, let’s start by saying we’re well into the digital era at this point. Open Water threw open the floodgates for indie filmmakers of all stripes to make their own shark attack movies. And for proof of that, I’ll direct you to Tubi and have you search “sharks”. I’m sorry.

Nevertheless, The Reef stands a bit apart from the deluge of modern garbage shark cinema. It’s an Australian production from writer/director Andrew Traucki¹. Much like the previous entry in this series, The Reef is based on a true story. But where Open Water was loosely inspired by the disappearance of Tom and Eileen Lonergan, The Reef is directly based on a 1983 shark attack, and the events recounted by survivor Ray Boundy.

The Reef finds long-haul boat delivery man Luke (Damian Walshe-Howling) inviting his brother Matt (Gyton Grantley) and Matt’s girlfriend Suzie (Adrienne Pickering) on a boat trip along the Great Barrier Reef before he has to deliver the yacht to a buyer in Indonesia. For reasons unknown, Matt also invites Luke’s ex, Kate (Zoe Naylor), along for the ride.

Things go well, initially. Everyone is snorkeling, watching sea turtles and schools of fish and all that. They spend a day docked offshore of a tiny little island so Matt and Suzie can swim while Luke and Kate wander inland for a little makeout session. Luke is still hoping she’ll come back to him for good, but Kate makes it pretty clear she’s just here for a good time, not a long time.

While Luke is busy cooking breakfast one morning, the ship’s first mate Warren (Kieran Darcy-Smith) runs the ship aground on a shallow reef. The boat gets unstuck but then soon begins to capsize. The five sit atop the ship deciding what the hell to do, when Luke suggests they swim with the current and make for Turtle Island, which shouldn’t be too far away. Warren decides to stay behind, so the two couples don their wetsuits, snap two boogie boards in half and begin the trek to dry land.

Now that we’re back in Open Water territory, I can talk about how that film was clearly an inspiration for The Reef. The key difference here being that the production here is a little more polished. For starters, digital camera technology had come a long way in the ten years between films. Now the norm rather than merely a gimmick, digital cinematography has made films like this far easier to produce. (Once again: Refer back to Tubi.) But The Reef looks pretty good for what it is. It’s a legit professional production, and the underwater photography of real, live great white sharks is genuinely unnerving.

That’s… That’s kind where my appreciation for this film ends, unfortunately. There’s nothing truly wrong with The Reef, but it’s about as basic and no-frills as you’re gonna get out of one these movies. The novelty of a killer shark movie has worn off here in 2010, and with the technology easier than ever to manage, you really have to bring the juice if you’re gonna mount a killer shark movie. We’re still a couple years away from the whole Sharknado phenomenon, but it can’t get here fast enough if this is all that’s left in the tank². Four hapless swimmers trapped in open water just ain’t gonna cut it anymore, even if this is loosely based on a real incident.

Let’s talk about that incident, for a moment. In July of 1983, an Australian shrimp boat capsized in the Coral Sea. Once the boat sank, the three crew members made the trek back to shore using surfboards and a lifesaver. Dennis Murphy was the first to be attacked, a 15-foot tiger shark biting off one of his legs. To give the other two time to escape, Murphy swam away from them and sacrificed himself to the shark. Later that night, the shark came back and took Linda Anne Horton. The next morning, Ray Boundy was found alive on a shallow reef 45 miles from the mainland.

Now while the film doesn’t purport to tell that story exactly, it’s still “based” on those events, and the main details line up pretty much exactly. The film adds a couple extra characters for a little bit of drama, but the details are pretty much the same: One character gets a limb bitten off and swims out to sacrifice themselves, another character survives to the end by climbing up on a shallow reef.

It’s not bad at what it does in any way shape or form. It’s just… not quite enough? The Reef moves along at a brisk ninety-three minutes and only the final twenty minutes really register. I wish I had more to say about it, but them’s the breaks.

FINAL RATING

2.5 stars (out of 5). S’just okay.

NEXT TIME: Sharktopus (2010)

1. Letterboxd says his most notable credit is the ABCs of Death segment “G is for Gravity”.
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2. Just gonna say it here now: We’re not gonna be looking at Sharknado. Sorry not sorry. ↩︎