Netflix’s newest addition to the “shark movie” genre came last Friday, April 10, with the release of “Thrash.” As a big fan of the genre, I’ve seen a lot of these types of movies and was definitely excited to see how this new film fits in.
The film follows a few different storylines with different characters, all taking place in the fictional town of Annieville, South Carolina. The first character we meet is Dakota (Whitney Peak), a seemingly agoraphobic young woman who recently lost her mother and now lives alone. Next, we meet siblings Ron (Stacy Clausen), Dee (Alyla Browne) and Will (Dante Ubaldi), foster children living with parents who don’t take good care of them. Thirdly, we’re introduced to Lisa (Phoebe Dynevor), a pregnant woman who is also alone because her fiancé recently left her. The last important character we meet is Dale (Djimon Hounsou), Dakota’s uncle and a shark expert.
As “Hurricane Henry” approaches, almost everybody in Annieville evacuates except for our main characters, who all have their reasons for staying: Dakota’s anxiety keeps her stuck in her house, the children are at the will of their foster parents, who don’t want to leave, and Lisa is unprepared as she has recently moved to Annieville from New York City.
Dale’s situation is a little bit different, as he is located in another town at the beginning of the film and his story relates his effort to get into Annieville to rescue Dakota.
Now here’s where the sharks come in.
Annieville is a seaside town with levees in place to prevent flooding. However, the levees break, which allows huge amounts of water to flow into the town and flood everything. As one can imagine, this also allows marine life to flow into town as well, including bull sharks who are attracted to the blood spilling into the water from a crashed truck hauling meat. The sharks then terrorize our characters as they try to survive the storm and floods. A pregnant great white shark that Dale and his crew are tracking also makes an appearance later in the film.
One issue that I had with the closing of the film is that three out of the four storylines intersect during the course of the film, while one is left out and separated from the rest. I personally think the film would’ve benefitted from picking one or the other: either all the storylines are separate or all of them eventually overlap, with my preference being the latter for a feeling of satisfaction at the end.
The film was definitely entertaining and fit right into the shark movie genre with its dramatic, bloody deaths and occasional cringeworthy moments. Impressive visuals add more tension to the scenes, especially in moments where the viewer could see sharks in the background that characters couldn’t.
Overall, the movie was a wild and fun ride, though it doesn’t stand out in the genre. If you’re a shark movie fan looking for an exciting watch, I say go for it – but don’t expect anything too extraordinary.
Junior Emily Myers is a Copy Editor. Her email is emyers3@fandm.edu.