47 Meters Down won’t probably make any significant money at the box office during its run. It will also likely be the kind of movie that will be forgotten fairly quickly by people who choose to see it as well as people who choose to skip it. However, that’s not to say that it’s the awful movie that I thought it would be. In fact, it’s actually the kind of picture that some people will leave the theater feeling satisfied with what they saw in some shape or fashion.
Accompanied by her loving sister, Lisa (Mandy Moore) head to Mexico in search of adventure on the beach to get over a difficult breakup. To assist in accomplishing that, her sister Kate (Claire Holt) insists that the two of them go shark diving. Lisa reluctantly agrees, and the two are soon face to face with sharks and other life in the sea. This is all exciting until the cage they’re in breaks away from the boat it’s attached to. Falling all the way to the bottom of the seabed and no way to radio for help without risking death, the two sisters have to find a way to survive before the sharks or the lack of oxygen gets to them.
With all that could go wrong with a movie like 47 Meters Down, my biggest fear was actually that Mandy Moore would aggravate me to the point where I wouldn’t want to watch the movie. From my point of view, that stance was reasonable beforehand, but it turned out not to be much of an issue. While Moore did manage to irk me on a couple of occasions when she tried to show any acting range, she’s never in a position to ruin the movie. The reason for that is due to her never going overboard, these periods being short and there being a decent amount of space resting in between them.
One thing that could help this movie earn a few positive reactions from potential viewers is that it’s a genuine attempt at horror. Unlike some other horror movies being released around this time, 47 Meters Down wants to frighten you. As you’ll find out, it’s not a sophisticated or “high brow” kind of flick that takes itself to seriously and hopes to creep you out in some uncommon way. In fact, it knows what it is and never reaches any further. Because of this, they’re able to focus on at least some of what it is that many will actually want.
In doing so, they are surprisingly able to build a solid level of tension on multiple occasions throughout the entire movie. To do that, the people behind it took a fear that the vast majority have and turned it into something that audiences are capable of feeling at times simply by watching it with anticipation. Sure, a good chunk of it is predictable to some degree, but it will at least be a watchable affair for those not looking for much more than a few scares.
I also appreciate the fact that this is only 89 minutes long. Based on how most movies are today, this could have been extended and made to be a good bit longer than it is, but luckily, these guys knew they didn’t have a great deal to work with as far as subject matter. It does drag early on as they set everything up, but that’s to be expected with almost every movie. Outside of that period of time, 47 Meters Down manages to squeeze everything it can out of the small amount of material that it actually has to work with.
Rating: PG-13
Director: Johannes Roberts
Cast:
Mandy Moore
Claire Holt
Matthew Modine
Film Length: 89 minutes
Release Date: June 16, 2017
Distributor: Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures
