First of all congratulations to Chris Kentis for spotting this topic and writing and directing the film. Now you can tell after praising the film maker up front the rest of this review is going to be quite critical! This film unnerved me, it made me feel uncomfortable as well and that's the problem - it should have frightened the absolute living daylights out of me! Because I rate being deserted at sea in shark-infested waters right up there in the scary-stakes with being buried alive. Now I respect Mr Kentis and his collaborators decision to tell the story in a very minimalist way, I guess they considered this story was powerful enough on its own not to require a heavy hand, and I could have agreed with them pre production. But now having seen it I don't think it was. I'm not saying they needed full on John Williams score and masses of special effects but perhaps varying the camera angles a bit more would have worked better.

Most of the story is told with the camera in an elevated position looking down on the protagonists, i.e a boat! This means I am divorced from any threat or the action. Couldn't we have got down to eye level more allowing us to feel we were more apart of the story? It was our toes about be chomped off? I'm afraid in the drama stakes this movie never got anymore dramatic than the average TV docu-drama and that's a real shame for after coming up with this concept and creating a half decent script Mr Kentis has missed an opportunity to create a classic.

While spending their vacation in a paradisaical beach, the young couple Susan (Blanchard Ryan) and Daniel (Daniel Travis) decide to dive in open sea. They are forgotten by the crew of the boat and spend tense hours alone and surrounded by sharks.

"Open Water" is a very tense thriller, based on a real event. The performances of Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis are very human, the movie explores the psychological phases of two persons in constant fear and it is worthwhile watching this low budget movie. The end without redemption is magnificent and the quite amateurish camera with many closes does not spoil this great gem that deserves to be discovered. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Mar Aberto" ("Open Sea")

Susan (Blanchard Ryan) and Daniel (Daniel Travis) are on their Caribbean vacation. They go on a scuba diving excursion. They get left behind when the boat's crew miscount their returning charges. Susan assumes that Daniel got them lost. They start off with mild concerns and confusion. As the hours pass by and sharks are spotted, their situation gets more dire.

The start is a pretty amateurish weak indie. The actors are not well known. Everything is boring pedestrian until the shark shows up and the tension goes sky high. I don't particularly like open waters and sharks. This one can really get under your skins especially for landlubbers like me.