The Reef (2010) - Andrew Traucki

Luke, who delivers ships for a living, works in the beautiful waters of Australia's Great Barrier Reef.  When Luke' friends comes to visit, he brings them along on his latest job, charting a yacht to its new owner.  As they set off into the beautiful but dangerous waters, their ship is damaged by the sharp rocks and begins to sink.  The group of friends is faced with a terrifying decision:  stay on board and hope to be rescued, or swim twelve miles to nearest land in shark-infested waters.  Andrew Traucki's The Reef is an effective water-based survival horror film but it never does enought to distance itself from other films in the genre.  The Reef's best attribute is its aesthetic, being a very convincing film from a visual perspective, especially when considering the film's low-budget. The Reef uses real footage of great white sharks, blending it into the film's footage with the actors in a way that is far from seemless, but still effective.   The characters themselves are for the most part uninteresting, with a half-baked on-again off-again relationship between Luke and Kate being the only real character development.  All in all, The Reef is a better made film than most of its similar counterparts but it never does enough to make it stand out.

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