The Reef

...the film's final stretch is unexpectedly engrossing...

Considering what most low-budget shark flicks look like, The Reef is a welcome sight indeed.

Traucki manages to keep the tension running throughout the film's 94-minute runtime even before the shark ever shows up to make dinner out of the cast.

... squirm-worthy survival adventure ... Go ahead, take the plunge. 'The Reef' is an authentic nail-biter (toe-nibbler?) that lives up to its fun come-on: 'Pray that you drown first.'

Lacking the compelling drama and survival horror kick of its cousin Open Water, The Reef is brisk and reasonably involving, but pretty middling, too.

The Australian tourist industry will hate it but The Reef is an extremely effective watery horror/thriller.

For most of the time, Traucki manages the horror well, with the menace inferred. Particularly spine-chilling is the scene in which Walshe-Howling is exploring the air pocket in the upturned boat. Sound tells the story.

The Reef is that rarest of treats: an "animal attack" thriller that is as dramatic as it is horrific.

Terrible scripting, unconvincing acting, wonky continuity and feeble atmospherics induce an overpowering feeling of tedium that cancels out any potential for true terror.

Once that journey happens it is tremendously effective and, honestly, it's like you want to get out of that cinema.

The film is good at what it does, goes to plan and concludes in a modest 88 minutes. Yet if that's success, it's also a failing, for it's not particularly memorable or distinctive.