TL;DR – Today, we look at a film that may have foundered at the start and end. It also found itself in the centre when it truly shined.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was sent a screener of this film.

Dead Sea Review –

Today, we are looking at slightly odd film because usually, when films fall about, it is in the middle. But today’s outing is where the movie shines. This is such an odd juxtaposition, yet it also led to a compelling outing at times.  

So, to set the scene, Kaya Adams (Isabel Gravitt) lives in the Florida Keys, and she has to spend a lot of time looking after her family after her mother passes away. Afraid that Kaya is becoming a recluse, her best friend Tessa Miles (Genneya Walton) sets her up on a double date with Xander (Koa Tom) & Julian (Garrett Wareing) jet skiing all the way to the Bahamas. It was a delightful day until tragedy struck, and Kaya and Tessa were left alone in the ocean with a badly injured Xander. The sea is deep and full of predators, and all help is lost until they see a boat on the horizon. But little did they know that they may have been safer in the water.  

There are a lot of factors that you must put aside when watching a film like this. The first is any sense of logistics, whether that comes from the opening jaunt or how long you think organs are viable. Indeed, the only practicable people in the entire film might have been the actual Coast Guard. Then there are the sheer number of coincidences that need to happen to get to our central premise, but if I was going to dock a film for that, then the Original Star Wars trilogy starts looking shaky. The better a film is at selling its narrative, the better it is at putting these issues out of people’s minds. Unfortunately, here, everything about the opening helps reinforce all the problems with the film.    

However, there was a point in the proceedings where things shifted towards the compelling. The Dead Sea is an odd film in that the more people that died, the better the story got. This might be because the writer is just starting out their career, and they work better in those tighter spaces. Or if the central concept works better when you have entered ‘hiding from a slasher’ mode than it did as a generic escape the trap room, but on the ocean, horror film. While the space was limited, I would have liked to see more of the tense chase between Isabel Gravitt and Alex Wraith as power and upper hand shifted between them.     

The visuals are a bit of a mixed bag, which, unfortunately, I think has more to do with the budget than anything else. For example, all the location shots on the boat work quite well when the Sun is not in the way because the location they are using has the layers of texture you need in a film like this. It also adds to the claustrophobia element that you need for the tension. But then it doesn’t help when, in those odd moments when, we cut from the footage shot on location to what was clearly stock footage from a different location. These moments rip you out of the narrative when you should be trying to draw people in.  

In the end, do we recommend Dead Sea? There were elements that I liked towards the back half of the film before the ending slipped out from underneath them again. But I am not sure that it ever indeed found its feet, and that limits what you can do. Have you watched Dead Sea? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked Dead Sea, we would recommend to you Speak No Evil.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Dead Sea
Directed by – Phil Volken
Written by – Phil Volken
Music by – Gad Emile Zeitune
Cinematography by – Helge Gerull
Edited by – Phil Volken
Production/Distribution Companies – Laguna Six, 13 Films, Vertical & Eagle Entertainment.  
Starring – Isabel Gravitt, Genneya Walton, Dean Cameron, Koa Tom, Garrett Wareing, Alex Wraith, Al Burke, Brian Silverman, Phoenix Volken & Audriana Volken
Rating Around an Australia: M;