Review of The Dive (2023) by Rebecca31 — 31 Aug 2023

127 Hours under the sea or 47 Meters Down without the sharks. The Dive takes a scary idea of being trapped under a rock but only this time it’s underwater. When sisters May (Louisa Krause) and Drew (Sophie Lowe) go scuba diving at a beautiful and extremely secluded location things go horrendously wrong when one gets trapped 28 meters below. With oxygen levels dropping to dangerously low levels by the minute it’s up to her sister to save her before it’s too late. And that’s why we don’t go scuba diving in a completely secluded area no matter how picturesque it is.

“The calmer you are the less air you use,” well The Dive is anything but calm and it’s not recommended for anyone about to go scuba diving. Watching the events unfold in such a desperate situation forces you to question how you’d survive such a terrifying ordeal, not me though I’d well be dead. In fact I’d never end up in this situation in the first place, though that doesn’t diminish how terrifying a position like this would be. But to call The Dive a horror movie is a bit of a stretch, but whoever organises the Odeon Scream Unseen chose it anyway.

You know exactly where this movie is going and all you’re doing is waiting for the incident to happen that gets one of the sisters trapped at the bottom of the ocean. Unfortunately the attempts to build an emotional connection doesn’t really work. The two leads don’t have great chemistry together, along with an average script it doesn’t keep a level of suspense and tension that the trailer made it seem. Because of this it drags in places and although it’s got some good moments it’s nothing special. Thankfully it doesn’t drift too far into the unbelievable but overall it’s not memorable and doesn’t do anything new to the survival movie genre. It’s also a remake of the Swedish film Tödliche Tiefen (Breaking Surface) which I’d guess had more suspense and atmosphere than The Dive, which makes you wonder why this remake exists at all. Still though, it was a lot better than the Meg 2.

Recommended for those who enjoy these kinds of survival movies. It’s worth a watch once, but that’s about it. For anyone looking for some real scares, there are actual horror movies in the cinema right now you could see instead.