A film like Open Water often has its Indie credentials as it’s biggest selling point. Granted the film was made on a budget of approximately $130,000 US over a couple of years by Husband & Wife filmmakers, shot on weekends and holidays using hand-held DV cameras and featuring only two principle actors. The filmmakers hit pay dirt during a screening at Sundance by getting their film picked up by Lion’s Gate Studios for the princely sum of $2,500,000 US.

Fun in the sun.

Instead the film itself is the biggest draw card rather than it’s humble budget, aside from the obligatory Blair Witch comparison based on production cost, which this film has unfortunately attracted. The story of Open Water and the creative talent behind the film deliver a much more thrilling time in the dark than what The Blair Witch had to offer.

Inspired by true events of the 1998 disappearance of the Lonergan couple that went missing whilst diving of the coast on the Great Barrier Reef, the story opens with a typical yuppie couple Susan (Blanchard Ryan) & Daniel (Daniel Travis) escaping the hectic lives in suburbia for a quick get away to the islands for some diving. The first 20 minutes of the film sets up their arrival and giving a fly on the wall view of their holiday before they set out for the dive. The young couple joins a chartered diving expedition that will take them out to the middle of the ocean to see some of the underwater sights.

While there, they swim off from the rest of group only to find that when they resurface the boat has disappeared. It seems one of the crew from the boat made an error in the head count of returned divers, thinking all were accounted for and set off back to shore. Thus leaving our young couple stranded and trying to come to grips with their predicament. The young couple begin to bicker between one another out of sheer frustration exposing some well-worn relationship arguments that should be familiar to all and eventually confronting those big fish called sharks out in the open water.

As stated the feature was shot using DV video cameras, unfortunately not the High Definition type. Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and 16:9 enhanced for widescreen displays, the video quality varies throughout the picture. The image overall is very soft but gets better when the action moves out to the open water. The image tended to suffer more in the land based sequences struggling to capture all the detail and colour accurately. There are a few instances were the image did suffer from pixelation and MPEG artefacts resulting in blocky break up, most notable in shots of the sky and some of the underwater photography.

About a Bouy & Girl.

I would hardly call these major faults and given the hand-held nature of the photography it has no right to look this good but it does. Since the story will have you so engrossed its easy to look past these blemishes on an otherwise acceptable transfer.

Where the video is a little bit of let down the audio certainly makes up for it. Obviously a benefit of a major studio’s involvement in finishing the film, there are two tracks to choose from. A Dolby Digital 5.1 or Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded. You would think for a film that spends a good portion of its time with two people bobbing up and down in the middle of the ocean that the audio wouldn’t be that dynamic. Wrong! What we have here is an exercise in subtlety.

The Dolby 5.1 track is a gem given a lot of the action is centered in the fronts. The rears add plenty of detail to the ocean scenes enveloping the listener with the sounds of water lapping about the two divers as well as featuring some pans from the front to back from planes flying over the divers. The storm sequence is a highlight and is accentuated by good use of the LFE channel, which is used often throughout the feature filling in the bottom end of the score and sound effects. The Dolby Digital 2.0 track is not too bad either and is acceptable if you don’t have the full 5.1 Home Theatre set up.

On the extras, we are given a decent Audio Commentary by the filmmakers - Chris Kentis & Laura Lau sharing a lot of aspects about the production and the shoot, all covered in great detail. A second commentary by actors - Blanchard Ryan & Daniel Travis. Not nearly as informative as the filmmaker’s commentary, instead these two talk a lot more about their characters and their perspective on working with their finned tormentors.

Feeding time.

Featurette - Attacking The Shark Myth - Shark Conservation (10:27):
As you can tell by the title of this we have a bunch of shark huggers here discussing the importance of the species and how we need to preserve them, rather than fear them and kill them off.

Featurette - Calm Before The Storm (15:51):
Unfortunately this feature is not long enough in my opinion, especially considering the length of the shoot. There would have to been a lot more behind the scenes footage filmed I am sure and I would have loved to have seen more of it.

Featurette-The Indie Essentials (5:04):
A short little feature about the film being picked up by Lion’s Gate at the Sundance Festival, and how Lion’s Gate actively seeks out films of this caliber

Featurette-Open Water Survival Guide (8:15):
Basically an Interview with a leading diving professional, explaining the various safety devices on the market to avoid the dilemma faced by the two divers in the movie.

Deleted Scenes (7:53):
Given the film’s modest running time, which suits the story to a tee. I found it hard to defend the reinsertion of these deleted scenes. There are six scenes on offer presented in 1.85:1 widescreen & non 16:9 enhanced with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. They mainly consist of short little filler pieces that don’t seem to move the story along in any way.

Two Theatrical Trailers:
Both are presented in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio and are non 16:9 enhanced, featuring Dolby Digital 2.0 audio only.

Open Water is an enjoyable film about a gruesome topic. This film is one helluva ride and is probably not something I would recommend for an evening of light entertainment. Not that it is a bloody and gruesome affair like Jaws was, the horror here is personified by the uncertainty of what lies beneath and ahead leaving the viewer somewhat emotionally drained by the desperation of the two characters. Chris Kentis captures this perfectly in his film. Presented with some fairly decent extras and a commendable transfer making this an essential purchase for fans of the genre.