THRASH A Second Opinion

It is legitimately amazing to me how many shark attack movies there have been made in the world ever since the success of Jaws back in the 1970's.

"Shark attack movies" is almost commonplace enough to be its own whole genre of cinema. No other breed of animal has been committed to film as predatory antagonists nearly as often as sharks have. Granted, it's not always the same KIND of shark; usually it's a great white, sure, but it's also occasionally been bull sharks, tiger sharks, and the like. Still, shark is shark. And when it comes to other creatures, well, we don't have to differentiate tiger attack movies based on whether they are regular tigers or snow tigers. There aren't enough of either.

What is it about sharks that so captures the imagination? Is it the isolation, the helplessness of being in the water with them? That's their habitat and not ours, and they can strike basically unseen. Is it the prehistoric nature of them and how they have survived so much change in the Earth and far pre-date us? They will possibly be here well after we are gone.

Or is it just that Jaws was really, really good, and we are constantly chasing that dragon?

Regardless, there are no fewer than two somewhat major shark flick releases in 2026. The later of which stars Ben Kingsley of all people, and it is called Deep Water. It will be about the survivors of a plane crashing into the ocean and their struggle to survive an onset of the malicious sea beasts.

Today's review, however, focuses on Thrash, a direct-to-Netflix release that co-stars Djimon Hounsou. This offering takes place in the coastal United States during a category five hurricane onslaught. As the levees break, a town called Annieville rapidly floods, filling the streets (and homes!) with water. During the storm surge, a meat truck that is transporting just an irrational amount of blood is destroyed, and the loose blood attracts several bull sharks to Annieville.

Throughout the proceedings, we are introduced to several characters, each having their own quibbles and goings-on to deal with in addition to the threat of being eaten. But I'll get to that in the Ups & Downs segment.

How will our protagonists fair in the face of not just a massive storm but an army of hungry beasts?

TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS

+ There are some new and original twists on the idea of survivors trying to stay in their natural state of "not eaten by sharks". We have one character who is dreadfully agoraphobic, another who is pregnant and about to deliver, and a trio of siblings and their strained relationship with their foster parents. There are elements to care about here besides just the sharks eating people. 

It's unfortunate that not all of the story points combine by the tale's end. Sure, Lisa (the soon-to-be mother) and Dakota (the anxiety-ridden homebody) link up and tie their fates to each other, but they never end up meeting up with the foster kids. So while there was a missed opportunity to have them all get together and tie the plot neatly together, maybe it's a subversive take on the movie's part to keep them separate! This being the Ups, I'll go ahead and assume the latter.

+ Thrash sets up a super antagonist in the form of Nellie, a pregnant great white who also gets attracted to Annievile, as opposed to just the army of bull sharks already swarming the town beset by the hurricane. What it actually ends up doing with Nellie might not be what you expect, however, and I like to be surprised!

- The first act is downright absurd, with a hurricane minutes away from a town, and every main character acting like they are hearing about it for the first time. It’s the cell phone age! Everyone would know the peril is coming. It’s all laughably silly and foolish from the movie just to set up its own world. For all the reasons you could have to set up these characters being together, the ones chosen just don't ring true to me.

There's also the aforementioned meat truck, which is an oil tanker just filled with blood, and perhaps I'm the ignorant one, but... do they really just drive some meat blood around in an oil tanker?

I don't know... this gets, at points, to be a film you could start enjoying ironically because some of the plot elements are so absurd. And while that can certainly be a good time, it's not what I was looking for here.

- There is a certainly bizarre needle drop and song choice later on in the film that is laughably silly, even if the flick sets up a reason for why it exists. It’s a thankfully short moment, but in a movie that makes far too many odd decisions, this was yet one more that we could have done without. 

OVERALL

Thrash is certainly a movie that makes a lot of big decisions and takes its share of swings. I genuinely cared about the characters since they were all presented with traits beyond being shark bait, so credit to the actors for pulling me in and to those that came up with the plot. However, the writing is really not particularly good. Everything is moved forward by the plot's necessity for things to happen, and that makes the movie feel unintentionally goofy at times.

🍿 SCORE = 27 / 100