Deep Blue Sea (1999)

After reviewing Secret Window, I wanted to tackle another movie that I loved but I kept seeing people (particularly online film critics) say is terrible. After watching Sharknado I knew which movie it had to be. This movie was another of my childhood favourites that I hadn’t seen in years, and since I’ve learned so much since then, and the face of cinema (and especially shark-related cinema) has evolved so much, I wanted to return to this film and see if it still held up.

To my surprise, it does; Deep Blue Sea is still a fascinating, frightening, and good film. To be fair, there are a few things that I noticed that do diminish the quality of the film: the sharks don’t always look realistic, there are a few silly moments, not every actor/character is fully developed, at least a dozen instances of choppy slow-mo, and several story elements echo other monster films: Jurassic Park (genetic tampering, man vs. nature), Alien (death of biggest star, cat and mouse game with the monster), and (of course) Jaws. On the whole though, this film is still well-written, well-acted, well-shot, and well-edited, as well as having amazing stunts, wonderful set pieces, and vicious killing machines.

The story centers around an aquatic research facility trying to find a cure (or treatment) for Alzheimer’s, the key to which (they believe) lies in the brains of Mako Sharks (side note: I like that we got away from the sharks being either Great Whites or Megalodons). The company’s CEO (played by the ever-wonderful Samuel L. Jackson) is doing an inspection of the facility following the escape of one of the three sharks (“two first generations and one second generation female”), with a hurricane approaching. During the first live extractions of the protein complexes (after it’s successful) from the genetically modified Gen 2 shark, one of the doctors (played by Stellan Skarsgard) has his arm bitten off. The rescue copter malfunctions and Skarsgard, while still attached to the copter, is pulled below the surface and dragged so that the rescue ends up destroying the tower, preventing communication with land. The sharks are revealed to have had their brains genetically enhanced, making them smarter (given “will” and “desire”), resulting in the sharks now hunting the humans, flooding the facility as they go along. It’s a race against time to escape the facility, survive the sharks, and destroy them so they don’t escape into the ocean.

Because this film does echo several better monster movie plot elements, I can understand if some people think that it’s just another generic monster movie. It did also come out at the tail end of the “disaster films” era in the late 90s, following Titanic, Twister, Dante’s Peak, Independence Day, etc. so it’s easy to label this film as cliched or un-creative.

Most of the characters do fulfill the typical archetypes of other monster/horror films, but here’s the thing: they actually act logically and emote properly. Whenever something happens in this film, I have no doubt in my mind that they actually feel the way that they do. Additionally, whenever they have to come up with an escape plan, they discuss it, as well as the pros and cons, and work towards that goal. And here’s why that’s amazing: they’re making smart decisions. There are so many horror and monster films where the characters don’t act like normal people or make logical decisions, but here, it plays into the whole theme of man vs. nature in that they can plan as much as they want, but nature will have other plans. And it’s also nice that the characters have some depth to them, by monster-movie standards.

Take the head doctor, Susan McAlester, played by Saffron Burrows: she’s out to change the world because her father has Alzheimer’s and she had to watch him (repeatedly) break down every time she told him her mother died. This makes her a very empathetic antagonist. She goes to the nth degree to get what she wants: tampering with nature, violating company policy, and endangering her friends and co-workers. At the "All-Is-Lost-Moment," she even does the stupid thing (for, yes, noble reasons) and breaks away from the group to go get data, proving that the research and her need to control nature was more important than her life or the lives of anyone coming to save her. Eventually, she does have a bit of redemption at the end where she sacrifices herself to help kill the Gen 2.

Sam Jackson’s character, Russell Franklin, has a great backstory, which I’ll admit does get annoying because everyone in the first half hour talks about it several times, but does work it’s way into the narrative. Since he’s experienced a situation like this before (twice if you count his role in Jurassic Park), he’s calm, cool, collected, and seems like a natural leader. He even gives rousing and inspirational speeches that are very motivational… until he gets eaten by a shark in the BEST jump-scare and twist that I think I’ve ever seen in a monster or horror movie. Apparently, according to IMDb at least, this is why Jackson wanted this role; the effectiveness of this death scene, which is a nice nod to Tom Skerrit in Alien. Probably my favourite part about him, especially given today’s climate, is that he’s not just some rich jackass archetype only interested in protecting his investment. I get the sense that he genuine cares about these people and he wants to help them survive. This means that his shocking death hurts even more because we actually like this character, a lesson other movies that use this archetype need to learn.

Probably my least favourite character in the whole film is Janice Higgins, played by Jacqueline McKenzie. She’s the wife (?) of Skarsgard’s character and the archetype most commonly known as “the bitch,” though I like referring to it as “The Queen” or “the Diva.” She’s not really that developed until after he’s dead. After that moment, though, she becomes bitter and resentful towards Susan, most likely blaming her for her husband’s (?) death, which is a very realistic reaction, even in a crisis. If even my least favourite character in a film has some good depth and acting behind it, it’s a pretty good sign that the film has quality.

The least developed character is Tom Scoggins, played by Michael Rappaport, as he mostly just spouts one-liners and acts as comic relief, and doesn’t really have any clear motivation beyond “not dying.” Fortunately, they didn’t Jar Jar him as he’s not the only one with comedic moments, and there are moments where he’s angry or scared. After Franklin’s death, he’s practically catatonic. You could argue that his character is incredibly insecure and uses humour as a defense mechanism. He is a good guy, wanting to help where he can, so I like this character.

Thomas Jane, in a breakout performance, plays the coolest character in the film: the shark-wrangler Carter Blake. At first glance, you’d think he just plays the typical “Jock/Athlete” archetype, focusing more on looking cool and being the most physically capable of the group. But listen to his dialogue; he’s smarter than he lets on. This is a man who knows the score and plays dumb because he “doesn’t make waves.” But he’s the one who figures out that the sharks are ramming the doors, he’s the one who figured out that the sharks were smarter than they should be, he’s the one that tried to warn Susan about it, and figured out that she was using them. He’s even got reasons to do this as he just wants to “meet the terms of his parole.” There’s a huge nod to him having been a smuggler, which just evokes a feeling of Han Solo. There’s a reason that Jane went on to do more projects: look at this facial expressions: he’s mostly just a tough guy, but when he’s scared or feels guilty, you can see it in his eyes and his face.

Ironically my favourite character in the film is the religious one, played by LL Cool J. Now I say “ironically” not because I hate religion, but more because I hate religious characters depicted in movies, mostly because I usually only see two variants: 1) the religious nut who’s completely devoted to and corrupted by their religion (like Frollo from Hunchback of Notre Dame or Melvin from The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas) or 2) those that are completely hypocritical and don’t practice what they preach (such as Rev. Teagardin in The Devil All the Time). Sherman “Preacher” Dudley is cool, funny, and is religious to a point, but he’s got some badass moments, some funny moments, some really human moments, and is just a really engaging character to watch. He gets to kill the first shark and why? Not because the shark was trying to eat him, not because it tried to cook him, but because “you ate my bird.” I remember being so happy when I found out he lived in the end alongside Carter.

This movie is around 1 hour and 45 minutes, and we spend a lot more time with these characters than a lot of other movies I know. By keeping the principle cast to around 6 people (Jackson, Burrows, Jane, McKenzie, Rappaport, and Cool J), we can focus more on their inner turmoil and character so that we want to see them survive. As much as I can now appreciate the majesty of The Meg (especially after seeing Sharknado), I still don’t really care about those characters. None of them are very dynamic or interesting beyond the surface level and they still don’t have any good inter-personal conflict. Odd to say, but the smartest statement about characters in horror/monster films comes from the Netflix series, Scream: “you need to forget it’s a horror story, that someone might die at every turn. You have to care for these characters. You root for them, so when they are brutally murdered… it hurts.” Deep Blue Sea does an above average job of giving us characters that serve their archetypes but also garner a lot of sympathy from either their backstories or their personalities. So, from a writing standpoint, I really can’t see a problem with this film.

Even from a technical side, I see very little wrong with it. The sharks aren’t always convincing, sure, but they follow the Jurassic Park route and use both animatronics and CGI, as well as real live sharks to sell their illusion. They are also given a greater depth than some monsters I’ve seen, certainly more than other shark films. These aren’t just mindless monsters being demonized for mistaking a surfer for a seal like in Jaws or The Shallows, or a predator scared in a foreign environment like The Meg; they’re genetically modified to be smarter and more evil. As the tagline says: Bigger, Faster, Smarter, Meaner. Even the growling doesn’t really bother me because it seems like its relating to a higher brain function. Granted, the sizes of the sharks can be inconsistent, and the CGI isn’t always great, but for the most part, the sharks do look really good and blend well into their environment.

The lighting and cinematography is pretty great, and the editing is really smooth, even if I don’t think there’s anything really poetic going on. The film is visually interesting, making good use of contrasting colours, and smoother camera movements than a shark movie usually has. Through all this, it’s easy to follow the action, making watching the movie easy.

So, what’s the problem with this movie? Granted I don’t think I had to work very hard to convince you that this was a good movie, or at least a good monster movie. This film, on most levels, works as a solid story, with good visuals, engaging characters, and a terrifying situation. It’s scary, funny, heartfelt, and not a terrible film. They even left it open for sequels at the end, with Preacher asking Carter if he was certain there were only three sharks, and you can see in Carter’s face that he’s NOT 100% sure. The theme of the movie seems to be the standard “man vs. nature” debate and how fast things can go from bad to worse, but it’s never really hammered in. There’s no environmental message, no “save the sharks” propaganda, and the movie works better for that. Even the music is wonderful, with the soundtrack featuring some good songs and the score keeping suspense and triumph perfectly in tune.

If you were to tell me that this film was just some cheap teen slasher flick disguised as a shark movie, then I said the filmmakers knew that we’ve seen that before. The film starts out with exactly the set up that most teen slasher films have, but then it evolves into a story where the stakes actually matter and the acting and action is believable. And believe me, we’ve got no shortage of those types of movies, so this film just seems very welcoming. So take a dive into theses shark infested waters for a more engaging monster movie.