47 Metres Down (2017)

It’s an age-old question, did Jaws (1975), arguably the first big summer blockbuster in cinema history, kill shark films stone dead?

The answer is no- prior to popular belief, there are a handful of decent shark fronted films out there, the problem is that none of them come close to Speielberg’s 1975 hit. In fact, the film that holds the closest candle to Jaws is probably Jaws 2 (1978) a hugely over attacked and underrated film and streets ahead of what was to follow for the franchise.

47 Meters Down follows two sisters who are on holiday and wanting to get away from the usual touristic hot spots in Mexico. After meeting two young men one night, they agree to go cage diving with great white sharks (on the cheap).

We all know what comes next, the cable snaps and the cage is sent plummeting to the ocean floor with the two girls trapped inside, and sharks circling.

Although this wouldn’t have looked out of place in a bargain bin at a petrol station, 47 Meters Down does exactly what it says on the tin, and certainly passes its run time sharply, at no point are you bored, nor are you particularly interested in the back stories of the girls; just as well because they’re unbelievably inane.

This is similar territory to The Shallows (2016) the Blake Lively fronted shark survival tale, and although 47 Meters Down doesn’t quite reach the almost cinema release deserving Lively film, you could do a lot worse for a film about sharks attacking humans. 5.8/10