Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert |
8 |
Rarely, but sometimes, a movie can have an actual physical effect on you. It gets under your defenses and sidesteps the "it's only a movie" reflex and creates a visceral feeling that might as well be real. Open Water had that effect on me. |
Chicago Tribune
Sid Smith |
7 |
Though the digital cinematography and matter-of-fact acting both recall reality TV, Open Water benefits in the end from both its blunt style and the skilled realism of Ryan and Travis, ordinary folks trapped in one whale of a primal nightmare. |
E!
|
9 |
It'll leave you with the creeps and make you think twice about swimming in the ocean for the rest of the summer. |
filmcritic.com
Nicholas Schager |
5 |
A soggy thriller that fails to generate more than moderate tension via its ugly DV camera work and hopelessly linear scripting, Chris Kentis' Open Water must have swam much better on paper than it does on screen. |
New York Post
Megan Lehmann |
7 |
Based on a true-life event that occurred off Australia's Great Barrier Reef in 1998, this raw, digitally shot mock-documentary has a you-are-there quality so intense that watching it verges on an interactive experience. |
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh |
6 |
...an ingenious triumph of imagination over budget, is a modest psychological thriller that plucks a primal nerve... |
Reel
Tim Knight |
8 |
This ultra-realistic indie from husband and wife filmmaking team Chris Kentis and Laura Lau is a film of astonishing pictorial beauty and feverish dread. |
Slant Magazine
Ed Gonzalez |
6 |
The Fear Factor-ish Open Water was a smash hit at the last Sundance Film Festival, and judging by the film's marketing campaign, distributor Lions Gate would have us believe that it's the second coming of the Blair Witch. |
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers |
8 |
Open Water is open season on an audience's nerves. As in the best scare flicks, what eats at you most is what you don't see. |
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman |
10 |
...terrifying... |
New York Times
A. O. Scott |
4 |
This minimalist thriller evokes some deep and primal fears, but it is ultimately too under-dramatized to provoke anything more intense than squirming discomfort. |
Los Angeles Times
|
5 |
|
People
Leah Rozen |
7 |
Call this a thinking person's shark movie -- but still be afraid. |
LA Weekly
Scott Foundas |
3 |
...Open Water is just one tedious scene stretched out to feature length. |
Village Voice
Dennis Lim |
3 |
...failing to recognize the chasm between gimmick and concept, is an unwitting meta-movie—so sloppily assembled that suspension of disbelief is all but impossible. |
Onion AV Club
Nathan Rabin |
4 |
...its grating characters and shaky grasp of filmcraft make it tempting to root for the sharks to finally put the film's leads out of their waterlogged misery. |
Maxim
Paul Ulane |
4 |
As scary as the situation is, the flick itself is dull. |
Premiere
Aaron Hillis |
8 |
Open Water may not be a pristine or complex suspense thriller, but you'd be hard-pressed to find anything else as terrifyingly potent in such a tiny package. |
This movie is available on DVD/Video