Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		2.0

The Reef: Stalked Blu-ray Movie Review

Jaws with bras.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III September 23, 2022

Two months too late for Shark Week and just in time for fall, Andrew Traucki's Aussie import The Reef: Stalked is a fatally lukewarm and toothless exercise in open-water survival horror that somehow runs way too long at 93 minutes. Wanting desperately to emulate the likes of The Shallows, The Descent, and yes, Jaws, it's a film with one of the most left-field setups in recent memory and filled with stock horror victims whose bad decisions will make you root for the villain. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Cute But Forgettable Girls in Danger!

BFFs Nic (Teressa Liane), Jodie (Ann Truong), Lisa (Kate Lister), and Nic's sister Cathy (Bridget Burt), fresh from a weekend snorkeling trip, are met with tragedy when Cathy's abusive boyfriend Greg (Tim Ross) drags her home and drowns her in the bathtub. Whoopsie! Several months pass and Nic, who disappeared for several months and left her younger sister Annie (Saskia Archer) to do all the paperwork, finally emerges from her shell for a getaway with the original gang... plus Annie, of course, who's apparently stepped up from "phone-obsessed teenager" to "replacement for Cathy". Jodie and Lisa are convinced that a repeat dive will serve as a fitting tribute for their deceased friend, but Nic is somehow now terrified of going underwater now due to her sister's cause of death. (I guess taking showers is OK?) But it's not long before their poorly-planned expedition, which includes taking four single-seater kayaks into the middle of the ocean, is interrupted by a vicious Great White Shark who's probably a male shark because all males are bad in this movie, except for one helpful young boy who's on-screen for all of three minutes.

The thrills come slow and sporadic during The Reef: Stalked, which trades in emotional depth for cheap jump scares while stretching its paper-thin narrative to the breaking point. Bad decisions lead to unavoidable outcomes, the most predictable characters die first, and the special effects range from impossibly unconvincing to actually kinda passable. Once our shark finally appears -- which takes much longer than expected, more from narrative padding than purposeful tension -- the film's plot is even so laughably similar to Jaws that it's impossible to ignore. Stalked's only saving grace is its sun-kissed locations which, along with the obvious eye candy and tantalizing promise of sharks, are probably the only things drawing in unsuspecting viewers. What you'll get instead is the bare minimum of everything, along with a nagging wonder why anyone thought this was a worthwhile endeavor in The Year of Our Lord, 2022.

Don't get me wrong: I'm all for the occasional "turn off your brain" thriller and still strangely attracted to this specific sub-genre... but it's been explored and exploited so many times that, like zombie and superhero movies, perhaps we're long overdue for a break already. Nonetheless, Stalked -- a spiritual sequel of sorts to director Andrew Traucki's 2010 shark-attack thriller The Reef -- arrives courtesy of RLJ Entertainment as a surprisingly well-rounded Blu-ray package with plenty of bonus features, yet you're still better off streaming this one on Shudder at the very most.

The Reef: Stalked Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

As evidenced by these screenshots, The Reef: Stalked looks just fine on Blu-ray. There's more than enough room on this single-layer disc to hold its content comfortably and, while the 1080p transfer shows a few stray signs of banding and other compression hiccups, they aren't all that major or distracting. There's also the occasional mushiness of its digital pedigree during select moments, but all things considering it's a good presentation that likely exceeds streaming versions with no real trouble. Let's face it: Stalked was largely shot outdoors in sunny and mostly beautiful locations, so it would've taken a conscious effort to serve up anything less than a solid-looking Blu-ray.

The Reef: Stalked Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Likewise, the basic but serviceable DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio serves up a bit of sonic excitement in key areas, such as the shark-attack scenes which strongly mimic Jaws and the music which strongly mimics Jaws. As most scenes take place outdoors and in open water to boot, there's a distinct center-driven presence that often opens up a bit wider to accommodate echoes; it's occasionally blended with surround activity that arrives in the form of a few well-placed discrete effects and the slower simmer of atmospheric tension like gently rippling waves, wind, and those music cues. All things considered, it takes very few stylistic chances but nonetheless gets the job done just fine.

Optional subtitles, including English (SDH), are on hand to help decipher the stronger Aussie accents.

The Reef: Stalked Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a standard keepcase with eye-catching cover art and a matching slipcover. Bonus features are surprisingly plentiful on paper, although they're all short and won't change your mind about the film.

• An Introduction to "The Reef: Stalked" (2:33) - An EPK-style overview with on-set footage and comments from the cast and crew, including director Andrew Traucki and lead actor Teressa Liane.

• Interview with Teressa Liane (3:31) - The actor talks about her character and on-set experiences.

• Interview with Kate Lister (2:55) - Ditto.

• Women on the Set of "The Reef: Stalked" (2:50) - Producer Neal Kingston, Teressa Liane, and Saskia Archer speak about the abundance of cast and crew members who aren't men.

• Shooting on Location in Beautiful Bowen (2:41) - A brief piece about location scouting and daily production in the picturesque coastal Queensland town.

• Memorable Moments on Set (3:52) - The four main actors share highlights from their group experience.

• "The Reef: Stalked" Trivia (7:10) - Surprisingly the most lengthy extra of the bunch, this is a series of Q&A-style short interview clips with cast and crew members about shark facts and myths.

• Behind-the-Scenes Photo Gallery

The Reef: Stalked Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Try as it might, The Reef: Stalked is the store-brand sequel to an already underwhelming film, one whose merits are mostly limited to swiping stuff from earlier, better films. It's hardly passable as a surface-level production with clichéd characters that make bad decisions, and everything's barely propped up by a paper-thin premise that makes very little sense. Shark aficionados and survival thriller fans alike can both do much better so, while RLJ Entertainment's Blu-ray serves up solid A/V merits and a few lightweight bonus features, you're better off streaming it first.