In 2017 a film came out called 47 Meters Down. It featured Claire Holt and Mandy Moore as sisters who go cage diving and end up trapped inside the cage on the ocean floor surrounded by sharks. It’s an okay movie. This is not a review of that movie. Instead, this is a review of the 2019 standalone sequel, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged. In case you’re wondering, the premise is essentially the same… without the cage.
2019 Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures
While watching the film, it struck me that it had less in common with its predecessor and more with the 2005 British horror film, The Descent. That would ordinarily be a compliment – The Descent is a great movie and I cannot recommend it enough – but in this case, it comes across as a less skilled, very lazy (and probably unintentional) copy. With sharks.
In 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, we are introduced to a pair of stepsisters with typical stepsister issues, bullied quiet girl Mia and the more extroverted, outspoken Sacha. I believe that this was done in an attempt to mirror the relationship between the two protagonists of the original film, which was a central plot point. Unfortunately, Mia and Sacha’s relationship isn’t really expanded upon. There’s no indication how long they’ve been part of a family, when or why they moved to their current home or even what happened to Mia’s mother (I think it’s hinted that she’s dead but it’s not really made clear). In an attempt to bond, the two are sent by Mia’s father to go shark watching on a glass bottom boat but Mia’s bully is also there (despite it being made very clear that none of the residents of the area would participate in such a tourist activity), so instead the two sisters go with Sacha’s friends Nicola and Alexa to a small private lagoon.
2019 Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures
Nicole is definitely a contender for the most idiotic horror movie character ever. There are so many moments in the film where she makes everything so much worse. I’ve never been a fan of dumb characters. I appreciate that in some instances, horror movies rely on characters lacking common sense but I much prefer the characters who retain some intelligence and then still find themselves in trouble.
For some reason, the four girls decide to dive down to the entrance of a submerged Mayan temple and when Nicole ends up knocking over one of the pillars, they wind up lost and disorientated. Cue shark. The rest of the film involves them attempting to find a way out while being stalked by a blind cave shark.
2019 Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures
In principle, I could see where this could be a great movie. A claustrophobic environment with the constant threat of attack and the pressure of knowing you’re going to run out of air is a great premise. Which is why The Descent is so good. Unfortunately, the film is let down by the characters and the rather rapid fire way it deals with its threats. The four characters sort of bounce from one disaster to another. Even when the survivors make it out of the cave system, they end up in the ocean near the glass bottom boat, who immediately proceeds to dump a bunch of chum into the ocean to draw in more sharks, who can actually see. And if that wasn’t enough, every time one of the survivors is on the verge of climbing up onto the boat, they immediately get dragged off (usually in slow motion) by increasingly ridiculous looking sharks.
There's also a weird fixation on the bully character. She repeatedly pops up and she does absolutely nothing. Right at the end, there's this long lingering look between her and Mia that i think is meant to be meaningful but it just comes across as a cheap attempt at unearned sentiment.
The first film, while not great, had some genuinely tense moments. It relied on two solid characters in a singular location and used the dark ocean to create suspense, rather than relying on near constant shark attacks. In addition, the main threats for Holt and Moore’s characters wasn’t even the sharks in my opinion. It was more focused on the dwindling oxygen and the threat of nitrogen poisoning if they attempted to flee to the surface. The sharks were just a bonus. This gave time for atmosphere to build and for the audience to see the ins and outs of the characters relationships. Uncaged opted to have a near constantly changing environment and have the sharks be the main threat (the air issue comes up a little bit but it’s very insignificant next to the blind behemoth that is stalking the girls). It over relies on slow motion scenes and while it attempts to mimic some of the most effective shots in the original film (such as a moment where a character lights a flare in the pitch black ocean and the audience sees the sharks everywhere), it doesn’t manage to carry them off.
I wouldn’t recommend this film. Watch the original. Or better yet, don’t watch either and just watch The Descent instead.
2005 Lionsgate
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