As time goes by, Renny Harlin’s “Deep Blue Sea” (1999) is becoming more appreciated as a great horror action thriller from the dawn of CGI effects. I’m going to go out on a prow and say “Deep Blue Sea 2” (2018) won’t be due for a reappraisal anytime soon. It’s safe to say this movie and 2020’s “DBS3” are less well-known than the original, even though the original gets swept away in the great movie year of ’99 and the sequels came out recently.
Cover version
The straight-to-streaming “Deep Blue Sea 2” is like a cover version of “Deep Blue Sea,” performed by people who in every category (director, writer, editor, actors) are less skilled, or perhaps just starting to dip their toes in the movie industry.
The screenplay reads like the three writers watched “DBS,” let it simmer for about a week, then tried to rewrite it. It’s the same plot, although oddly, no references to the 1999 events are made.
“Deep Blue Sea 2” (2018)
Director: Darin Scott
Writers: Hans Rodionoff (screenplay, story); Erik Patterson, Jessica Scott (screenplay)
Stars: Danielle Savre, Rob Mayes, Michael Beach
On Tuesdays this summer, Reviews from My Couch is highlighting classic (and not so classic) shark horror films through the years.
One highlight for me is seeing Danielle Savre again. I loved her in “Summerland” and “Kaya” in the Aughts, mainly because she’s cute but also because she’s a decent actress. She popped up more recently in a “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff that I haven’t watched – I don’t love her that much.
In “DBS2,” she plays Misty, a shark conservationist and the sane counterpoint to the rich mad genius running the ocean station experimenting on bull sharks (the one kind of shark Misty won’t swim with, as their bite is 10 times fiercer than a great white’s).
For half the film, Misty wears a dive suit that only zips up to cleavage level. That’s a puerile reason to watch it, but trust me, you’ll be searching for reasons.
Not quite a comedy
Director Darin Scott could’ve made this into a winky dark comedy. At one point, aforementioned bad guy Durant (Michael Beach) explains to his assistant that he’ll kill all the bull sharks after the experiments are done. We cut to a menacing bull shark peering into a porthole, apparently listening in.
But “DBS2” only goes comedic sometimes. At other times, it aims for suspense. It never achieves it, but the film’s one highlight – outside of Savre in the wetsuit – is the cinematography by Thomas L. Callaway. Some corridors are red, some blue, some green; I doubt there’s any meaning to it, but it looks neat.
The tonal imbalance and Beach’s resemblance to Louis Gossett Jr. made me think of “Jaws 3.” “DBS2” is worse than that film (which at least has OK character journeys) overall. But it does have better special effects and kills – along with the innovation of baby sharks.
Like the adult sharks, though, they are less terrifying to a viewer than the “Baby Shark” earworm. This isn’t the fault of the effects team. The sharks come off as non-scary abstractions because of the film’s overall lack of interest in new concepts.
The main hook is that “Deep Blue Sea” is in the title. Suckers will watch “Deep Blue Sea 2,” in my case especially because Savre is in the lead role. And we will waste 94 minutes, unless you account for the value of getting a blog post out of it.