47 Meters Down: Uncaged

In terms of production values, Uncaged is an attractive B-movie with nice underwater caves and a wet Tomb Raider in panties, minus the fins. Even the predator looks scary and makes for one decent scare. Otherwise, however, things happen here that not even the shark from Zombi 2 experienced. It’s impossible to believe that the filmmakers intended this seriously, much less that they were behind the well-made first 47 Meters Down. (03/04/2020)

Like the first one, not quite a typical shark horror film, which again takes place deep underwater. This time in the ruins of a flooded Mayan city, a visually refreshing element, but unfortunately also the film's biggest weakness. It spends most of its time just wandering cluelessly in the murky underwater caves, and instead of evoking a sense of dread of sharks lurking in the dark, it spends most of its time focusing on the main characters' (indistinguishable in their diving masks) efforts to get out. The sharks are blind this time, and so the tension should logically come from whether the characters can be sufficiently “quiet” in their presence. Surprisingly, the film doesn't work with this very consistently. The shark attacks are often unrelated to how much anyone moves, and are staged more in the form of random scares. The tension only slightly kicks in at the action-packed conclusion, when we move to the open sea and the still-slow sharks pick up full speed. But then it becomes a typical shark horror movie. So the attempt to make a shark version of The Descent didn't really work. (03/11/2019)

The premise could work if we were to automatically accept the fact that filmmakers prefer fooling around with sharks rather than, like Jaws, introducing strong characters that won’t end as generic fodder for the toothy threat. The claustrophobic setting in a cave offers a few possibilities for tense and untried scenes, but what prevails in the final result is a literal twilight of originality that gives way to chaotic effects and a bizarre action-packed ending. Another pointlessly dark sequel with unremarkable protagonists that makes me feel like getting another beer and watch Spielberg’s masterpiece for the twentieth time. (01/01/2020)

I admit that I quite enjoyed this horror spectacle. The creators made some mistakes and illogicalities, but who cares? I felt cold at the thought of wandering somewhere in the mysterious depths of a labyrinth of underwater caves with limited oxygen and a shark at my back. I certainly wasn't bored, so I'll turn a blind eye to the unlikely and greatly overdone ending. However, the choice of locations in which the filming took place is certainly worthy of praise. (60%) (04/08/2021)