Fear Below (2025) Review
Fear Below (2025) Review
It’s gangsters versus bull sharks in the Australian outback of 1946. A team of professional divers in 1940’s Australia are hired to locate a sunken car in a river, who soon find their efforts are thwarted by a deadly bull shark hunting in the waters. When the divers discover they are working for ruthless criminals trying to recover their stolen gold bullion, the bank robbers prove to be as treacherous as what lurks beneath the surface.
Starring Hermione Corfield (SEA FEVER), Jake Ryan (WOLF CREEK), John McConville (ELVIS), Jacob Junior Nayinggul (HIGH GROUND), Arthur Angel (RED DOG) and Maximillian Johnson (HIGH GROUND), FEAR BELOW is directed by Matthew Holmes (THE LEGEND OF BEN HALL) from a script he co-wrote with Gregory Moss (THE COST).
FEAR BELOW is not your average or even below-average run-of-the-mill schlocky shark attack movie and consequently you get more bang for your buck when it comes to your chosen evening’s entertainment. The plot beats might be familiar – a criminal gang hire a trio of divers to (initially) unknowingly become potential shark chump for the purpose of retrieving stolen golden bars from underwater – but when such plot beats are presented so well it works in both the film and the audience’s favour. You know what’s coming and you relish knowing what’s coming.
Other factors that help director Matthew Holmes’ FEAR BELOW stand above the rest of the shark-genre pack, are the story’s period setting, the limited locations, and a game cast of familiar and not-as-familiar faces. Holmes also knows that less is more works, so the hungry, pregnant bull shark’s appearances are kept to a minimal, ensuring that when the shark does pop out suddenly that the shock works. When we do see the bull-shark it very importantly looks like a real shark and not a shoddy amateur CGI attempt at a shark. Often shark movies flounder when the plot has no just cause for anyone to put themselves in harm’s way by plunging into dangerous waters, whereas here they do, the innocents’ lives are at stake whether they opt to plop into the water or not.
FEAR BELOW is available on Digital Platforms 19 May and DVD 9 June. Distributed by Signature Entertainment
Amazon DVD
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