Boat-set thrillers were once very much en vogue with the likes of Dead Calm being perhaps the most famous, but faded away for a while. Recently however, they seem to be making somewhat of a resurgence, with boat-set stories becoming a new trend for indie directors. There’s something about taking a story, any story, and confining it to a vessel in the middle of the vast ocean that instantly ratchets up the intensity of the story. A notable recent success was Rob Grant’s Harpoon, a film which featured three friends, two of whom were romantically entangled, and trapped on a boat together after a dream outing turned deadly. Dead Water shares a lot of plot elements with Harpoon, but it ages up the characters, then adds some PTSD issues and a pirate for good measure.
Ex-marine, David (Griff Furst), and his wife, Vivian (Brianne Davis), join their friend, John (Casper Van Dien), for a jaunt on his new yacht. The idea is that the trip will help David relax, as he has been struggling with PTSD ever since leaving the military. Initially, the trip does just that, the threesome share laughs and copious amounts of alcohol, but things soon start to change when secrets start to bubble to the surface. Just as tensions rise to their highest level, the trio find themselves under attack from a menacing pirate (Judd Nelson) who has eyes on John’s yacht. Can the three friends set aside their differences and work together to stay alive?
We’ve been fierce supporters of Casper Van Dien since we set eyes on Johnny Rico in the brilliant Starship Troopers and it’s great to see him go against type here with his role of John. John is not the hero of the piece, with Van Dien playing a slippery and shadowy character, and getting the opportunity to showcase his darker side. He doesn’t quite go full villain, but there’s an intriguing ambiguity to his role that keeps the viewer wondering where his allegiances lie and why.
It’s not the most original of film stories, and actually feels a little like two separate ideas patch-worked together. The film starts as this tension fuelled relationship suspense drama, which follows the classic two guys in love/lust with one girl arch, and then suddenly segways into a siege movie. They’re an odd choice of bedfellows and there’s a tonal jar and stutter when the film transitions from one theme to the other. That aside, Dead Water is a solidly made film that is entertaining enough, it just doesn’t add much in terms of originality.
Dead Water is released on DVD and digital HD from Monday 5th October 2020.
Dead Water
Summary
A sea-set thriller that bobs along nicely in spite of some rocky narrative decisions.
