This summer will not be devoid of shark horror as the folks at Studiocanal are bringing us a fresh entry in the subgenre in the form of Something in the Water. Serving as the feature directorial debut of Haley Easton Street, this new shark flick brings us to a destination wedding (at least to start) before things get derailed by aquatic bloodshed. Have a look for yourself.
There are a few things that stand out here. For one, this is a pretty solid execution of the whole “from bad to worse” thing that often happens in shark movies. Deadly sharks are bad enough, but when several wrenches are thrown in the gears, it complicates matters. After all, you can’t have sharks on screen the whole time, so you have to have something else to get invested in. To that end, the trailer doesn’t offer too much by way of shark shots. Are they going all Jaws about it and saving those moments to make them count? Or is this a budgetary thing where there isn’t actually going to be a lot of shark business in this shark movie? We shall see. The official synopsis for the film reads as follows:
“An idyllic destination wedding turns into a battle for survival in this emotionally fraught, action thriller. Something in the Water follows Meg (Hiftu Quasem), who tentatively attends the wedding of old friend Lizzie (Lauren Lyle) in the Caribbean along with fellow pals Cam (Nicole Rieko Setsuko) and Ruth (Ellouise Shakespeare-Hart), plus her former partner Kayla (Natalie Mitson) who she parted ways with after both survived a deeply traumatic event.”
Cat Clarke (Good Omens) penned the screenplay. In addition to the trailer, we also have a poster for the film that you can check out below. When the Something in the Water was first announced back in 2022, Street had this to say about it:
“This is an elevated survival film, unlike anything else I’ve worked on, with incredible strong female leads at the heart of the story. Something in the Water will be an emotional and visual experience, putting the audience at the centre of the action and using seamless VFX to bring the terror to life. I couldn’t be more excited to helm this movie.”
Something in the Water hits theaters in the U.K. on July 5. No word yet on a U.S. release date but stay tuned.
