“‘Into the Deep’ Dives Into Dark Truths in Gripping New Thriller”

Into the Deep is a thriller film that came out on January 24th, 2025.

With this film seeming to be a low budget, stereotypical shark movie, with a 25% on Rotten Tomatoes, it does not seem to have much to explore. Below the surface however, this movie is not as bland and forgettable as it may seem.

The story revolves around Cassidy, a marine biologist who has a crippling fear of sharks. This fear comes from her dad being devoured by a shark right in front of her, which we see at the beginning of the movie. Throughout the movie, there are flashbacks of her grandpa helping her overcome her fear of sharks. Cassidy, and her husband Gregg, got word that an abundance of gold coins are in the same stretch of water where Cassidy’s dad was killed. Gregg is able to convince her to tag along to Madagascar with him in order to dive for the gold. They arrive at the boat and meet Benz, who is an old friend of Gregg´s, and Itsara and Pierre, who is another couple that will be tagging along on the boat trip. When they dive down to get the gold, a great white shark chases after the group, biting off Pierre´s arm. The gang frantically tries to get back to shore before Pierre bleeds out, but they do not think he will make it. They run into another boat, and Benz calls out to them for help. The crew boards, and the leader introduces himself as Jordan. After playing along for a few minutes, Jordan pulls a gun on them, claiming that they have seen too much, and then orders his pirates to go raid the boat. Cassidy and the others plead for their lives, and Cassidy offers to dive down for the shipment of drugs that were dropped into the ocean for Jordan. He accepts this deal, but on the precipice that if Cassidy does not return with his drugs, he will kill them all. Gregg starts to fight back, so the pirates push him overboard, and the watcher is informed that he will be back. Cassidy loses hold of the ropes that are tied to the barrels of drugs, and loses to the sharks. Benz lashes out and is shot by Jordan. Jordan is about to finish off the remaining members of the crew, when Cassidy now offers to go dive for the gold that they were looking for in the first place, and bring it to Jordan. He agrees, but is noticeably more impatient than before, and sends Itsara to go with her. Upon getting in the water, Itsara immediately panics and thrashes around, causing her to be eaten by a shark.

In this crucial moment, Cassidy lets herself sink to the bottom while thinking of all of the tactics her grandpa has taught her to help overcome her fear. A shark then swims right up to her, and rests the tip of it´s nose on her hand. She took off her oxygen mask while trying to connect with the shark, so she has to go back up to the surface. Jordan is furious that she has returned without his gold and is going to kill her. Gregg climbs back aboard the ship with a gun pointed at Jordan, but Gregg cannot bring himself to pull the trigger, and Jordan knows this. After a struggle, Cassidy grabs the gun, shoots Jordan, and immediately throws him overboard. Cassidy, Gregg, and Benz all head back to shore, and Cassidy has a newfound sense of freedom.

Contrary to popular opinion, I think that this movie has a lot to like about it. Though not on the same level as Jaws, or The Shallows, this is a pretty good shark movie. The first thing I really liked was the flashbacks with Cassidy´s grandpa. I feel like these added a lot to the story, and helped the viewers to understand Cassidy’s story infinitely better. It was interesting to see how these flashbacks tied into the end of the movie, and were ultimately very important to the plot.

Another aspect that I enjoyed about the movie was the part at the end where Cassidy has a moment with the shark. I think that in the context of movies about sharks, the characters in the movie and the watchers alike both forget that the shark is never the villain. In most of these movies, the shark is simply being a shark, and trying to survive in the wild. This is most of the time never acknowledged in these movies, and the portrayal of the shark´s motive can be wildly misrepresented. This movie does a beautiful job of showing the beauty of sharks as a species, and showing that they are not just rabid, bloodthirsty beasts.

The last thing that I liked about this movie is the lighting and camera work. Some parts of the movie had some amazing transitions, and the shots were always very clear and focused. When the characters are not under water, the lighting is very warm, which contrasts with the dark depths of the ocean.

While this film had some excellent elements, Into The Deep is less than perfect. There were many parts of the movie that were hard to sit through, and not in an exciting and suspenseful way. First of all, the pacing is a little bit off sometimes, which ruins parts of the movie for me. For example, when Jordan points his gun at Cassidy when she fails to come back with the gold. Jordan holds the gun to her head for way too long before Gregg runs in to save her. This feels off considering the fact that Jordan usually shoots his victims right away. This delay, while not enormous, ruins that pinnacle of suspense for the viewer.

The next piece of criticism I have for this movie is the fact that the characters, with the exception of Cassidy, are very two dimensional and seemed disposable for the plot. Because of this, it makes it hard for the viewer to care too much when a character dies. At the start of the movie, it can be predicted which characters will live and who will die based on the blandness of their personalities. Both of these aspects ruin the experience for me because if I am not surprised by the character deaths, I should at least be upset and vice versa.

The last piece of criticism I have for this movie is the fact that most of the sequences in the movie are unrealistic. The first example is the fact that the Great White Sharks do not even belong in the area that the characters were in. Benz says this himself in the earlier half of the movie. It does not make sense why the sharks would even be living there in the first place. The second example is the coast guard sequence. After Cassidy fails to retrieve the drugs in the film, coast guards approach the two boats which are tied together at this point. After seeing that the coast guards are not believing his made up story, Jordan orders his crew to shoot. This would mean that untrained men took out an entire raft of coast guards. This is highly unrealistic because the coast guards all had machine guns, and are heavily trained. This sequence takes the viewer out of the story because it is made clear that nothing can or will truly harm these characters.

Overall, I probably would not watch this movie again, but I would recommend it. This movie is very mediocre, but if you are a pre-existing fan of shark movies, I would urge you to check it out. This movie is the kind of movie that you would put on in the background of a party, not sit down to watch and pay attention to. I can acknowledge that it is pretty boring and for a very niche audience. However, this movie does things a little differently than the usual shark movie, and I can appreciate it´s existence for that reason.