Review | Deep Fear- The Second Attack

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Deep Fear - The Second Attack it is not a continuation of the first film in the franchise, but a totally independent plot. Here we see four teenage friends from high school (Corinne Foxx, Sistine Stallone, Sophie Nélisse and Brianne Tju) going through trouble while sneaking around a submerged Mayan city on the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico. Once inside, the young girls' excitement turns to terror when they discover that the submerged ruins are a hunting ground for great and deadly white sharks.

 

As is common in this type of production, the actresses / characters are all beautiful and, we can say, “standard”, even though the quartet is ethnically diverse: two blondes, one black and one Asian. And as in the previous film, both their personalities and their personal relationships and dramas are treated in a low and superficial way. It is extremely difficult to identify or even care for such shallow types. In fact, they can be easily described as follows:

 

Mia - the shy protagonist who is bullied by the “popular” school girls; Sasha - daughter of Mia's father's current wife, is the strong and witty personality of the gang; Alexa - the curious eager; Nicole - the clueless.

 

At first the viewer is led to believe that Mia and Sasha do not get along. But the reasons for this are never explained. Even so, as soon as the plot definitively enters the suspense of survival, all this is summarily ignored. Mia's father, Grant (John Corbett) is an experienced diver who moved with his family to Yucatan in order to invest in tourism near the Mayan ruins, considered the largest submerged archaeological site in the world. Apparently, Sasha and Mia didn't like the change at all. But things change when Alexa invites them to dive into a new and previously unknown stretch of ruins.

 

However, an incident imprisons them in the submerged labyrinth, which is infested with white sharks - more precisely a blind variety of the species that has adapted perfectly to the environment without light (something, by the way, perfectly possible from a biological point of view). And outside, in the open sea, are the “common” specimens from the Gulf of Mexico. At least with regard to animals, the film does not sin as much. Digital sharks are very convincing and, with the exception of one and the other exaggeration typical of this cinematographic genre, behave like real predators and not like unstoppable killer machines.

 

Crítica | Medo Profundo- O Segundo Ataque 1
Deep Fear- Second Attack | Image: Paris Movies

 

If the animals are convincing, the same cannot be said of the script and the characters. To begin with, two of the girls, who never dived, learn to master the equipment almost immediately. And how they speak! Miracle (read cheat script) the oxygen in your tanks lasted so long. This is just one of the narrative's facilitations. The worst of them is perhaps the superhuman resistance that some characters acquire the moment they are bitten by sharks; practically a steel skin.

 

If there is a point where the film hits, it is certainly in the suspense. The claustrophobic environment combined with darkness and the tense sound of the adolescents' breathing is as immersive (no pun intended) as distressing. Highlight for the sequence in which they need to cross a whirlpool with a very strong current. Too bad that this feature (used efficiently in both features) is interrupted more than once by jump-scares.

 

It is a film that will please only those looking for an uncompromised suspense with easy scares. It can especially annoy the most demanding diving and marine life enthusiasts. Another perfectly forgettable diversion.

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