Brian Duffield’s new survival horror film hits theaters this weekend.
Austin Abrams is on a hell of a horror run of late. With Weapons, Resident Evil, and now Whalefall, he is quickly cementing himself as a Scream King of the genre.
Whalefall is perhaps the toughest needle to thread, so to speak, as so much of the film rests on his shoulders as he’s trapped in the stomachs of a massive Sperm Whale with little to play against. As such, the film at times feels a tad ham fisted and expository as he talks to himself so often. This was perhaps my biggest concern in how the film would adapt Daniel Kraus’s wonderful novel of the same name. Novels put us so easily in the mindset of characters while films, as a much more visual medium, have to find more cinematic ways to communicate those same thoughts and emotions.
For the most part, Duffield succeeds in doing so and he and Kraus structured the screenplay in a way that folds in the flashbacks with his father, Josh Brolin, well. For anyone who hasn’t read the novel, the film is as much a survival horror film as it is a sentimental reckoning of the complicated and difficult father/son relationship they share.
Duffield generally does a good job balancing the survival elements of the film with the family dynamics. Besides Abrams expository scenes while trapped in the whale, the primary other complaint I have is that the score is often too on the nose and heavy handed as well.
But the film succeeds in its primary goal, the suspense and fear of being trapped in a massive creature deep below the sea. And that’s what is most important here, how well Duffield rides the waves of building and relieving tension as he heralds us through this survival story.
With screenplays for many successful films under his belt, including Underwater, The Babysitter, and Love and Monsters, he is now three for three as a director as well, knocking it out of the park with Spontaneous, No One Will Save You, and now Whalefall.
Final Verdict: A thrilling survival story and compelling family drama well worth your time.
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