Open Water: Critic Reviews

Becomes a slow and steady descent into pure fear.

This minimalist thriller evokes some deep and primal fears, but it is ultimately too under-dramatized to provoke anything more intense than squirming discomfort.

A tiny movie about ocean fears that will flush that overrated The Blair Witch Project 20,000 leagues under the sea.

A taut, riveting, uncommonly well-made film.

As the clock ticks on, the sharks thresh and the dialogue continues to stagnate, you might just catch yourself wickedly thinking: Come on sharks, let's do this.

It's ridiculously cheap and terrifying at the same time.

Simply a stunt -- hopelessly literal-minded and cheap in every sense.

Kentis keeps it simple and direct, and the effect is devastating.

A low-budget indie film whose tension and realism are augmented by unknown actors who fully inhabit their roles.

It's just two people, some sharks and a whole lot of ocean. Doesn't sound like much, but it proves more than enough to provide a taut, lonesome chill.

I'm here to tell you that Jaws is nothing. Jaws is now merely Flipper: Episode 127.

Terrifying precisely because it doesn't go in for cheesy shock tactics and special effects.

Rarely, but sometimes, a movie can have an actual physical effect on you. It gets under your defenses and sidesteps the 'it's only a movie' reflex and creates a visceral feeling that might as well be real.

A taut, 79-minute fright fest peppered with enough payoffs and glossed with a mournful philosophic overlay.

Open Water is so deeply terrifying, so primal in its depiction of man at the mercy of nature, that watching it shakes you to the core.

It's just them, the water and us -- at least until the sharks show up. By the time they do, we're feeling almost as apprehensive as Susan and Daniel are.

If you want to be consumed by special effects, go to any of the many formulaic thrillers in theaters these days. If you want to feel the real chill of fear, go for a swim.

Although the movie was produced with few frills, Kentis keeps you watching. He adds to the tension gradually, and by the end, you're gripping the arms of your seat, wondering whether this pair will be rescued before, um, lunchtime.

One of the most galvanizing and unforgettable films of the year.

Wrings every possible drop of tension out of a simple premise and a micro budget.

Sharks are nature's most efficient killing machines. Open Water, which co-stars sharks, is the summer cinema's most efficient scaring machine.

There are no Hollywood heroes in these waters, only two regular people ... plus you and me, huddling in the dark.

Considered in its ham-handed entirety, Open Water feels more of an exercise in cinematic sadism.

We, the audience, shuffle out of the theater, feeling drained and punished.