If done right, a disaster movie can scratch a cinematic itch like nothing else, serving up sentimentality, suspense and schadenfreude in tidy parcels of action. Deep Water, in which an American plane full of minor movie stars crashes in shark-infested waters, knows exactly what it’s doing even as it nods towards a number of predecessors.
For starters, the poster pays homage to, or steals from, Jaws with its images of tiny swimmers up top and a big toothy shark heading up from the depths below. Later on, an older woman is jokingly likened to Shelley Winters, a the Oscar-winning actor remembered for swimming for her life in the disaster classic The Poseidon Adventure. Best of all, the film brazenly eggs viewers on to wish and pray that the schlubby, obnoxious and constantly cigarette-seeking US guy (Angus Sampson, a hoot) will get to become shark chum before the credits roll.
