Preview
OPEN WATER
Starring Blanchard Ryan, Daniel Travis
Directed by Chris Kentis
Opens Friday, August 20
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Since it debuted at Sundance in January, Open Water has generated the kind of buzz not seen since The Blair Witch Project. Based on true events, it’s the story of a yuppie couple – Susan (Blanchard Ryan) and Daniel (Daniel Travis) – who are stuck miles from shore after being left behind by the rest of their diving party. Although Open Water provokes no shortage of stomach-clenching dread, what inspired the hype was the news that the sharks menacing the actors were not CGI creations but real-life creatures with real-life teeth.
The trouble with the hype is that it may set viewers up for something other than an intense, tightly constructed but essentially modest drama about people facing a situation that goes from bad to horrendous. As Open Water enters wide release this weekend, its creators are feeling edgy about a marketing campaign that promises "the summer’s scariest movie!" (true, but mostly because nothing could be duller than The Village) and "the best shark movie since Jaws!" (which puts it ahead of Deep Blue Sea and, uh, Jaws 3-D).
"This is not a horror movie," says Chris Kentis, the film’s writer, director, editor and co-cinematographer, in a recent interview in Toronto. "This is not a shark movie. My fear is that by positioning it that way, it sets up certain expectations in the audiences. I hope they go with an open mind to what is there."
"It’s really a double-edged sword when you have this kind of attention," says Laura Lau, who produced and co-shot the film with husband Kentis. "On one hand, you’re grateful because this movie which we thought would be seen in two art-house theatres is going to be seen by so many more people – how great is that? On the other hand, the movie has definitely turned into a creature we can’t control."
Kentis and Lau were driven to make Open Water by the desire to make a digital feature that took advantage of the medium’s potential in a new way. Both of them are divers and they were intrigued by the story of two American divers who were accidentally abandoned off the coast of Australia in 1998. Kentis connected with the tale not just because of his own diving experiences but because "everybody has fears of abandonment and loss of control. Diving is very safe and what attracted us to this story is that it is a rare occurrence. But damn right these things can happen and it’s shocking and upsetting. The film was about recapturing that initial emotional response."
After enlisting Ryan and Travis as their couple, Kentis and Lau made Open Water on holidays and weekends. Although the shoot was treacherous, the filmmakers consulted with experts to make sure that the actors would not be unduly jeopardized. "Some articles say that we just took them out in a tugboat and threw chum in the water," says Lau, laughing. "That’s not at all what happened."
But spending so much time on the water tested everyone’s physical limits. "Because of the currents, the actors had to be tethered to the boat and they were swimming like hell," says Lau. "It’s exhausting to be in the water all day with the sun beating down on you. Chris was in and out of the water, shooting underwater and at the surface. I was shooting on the boat. We were all taking Dramamine. The actors and I would joke because I always shot from the boat and they were in the water. Each of us thought the grass was greener – they wanted to get on the boat and I was dying to get in the water."
"I was the one going back and forth," says Kentis, "so I knew it sucked no matter where you were."
Travis says the ocean became "a third character. In the course of shooting any particular scene, there’d be elements of nature that altered yet fit the scene completely. We did have some really odd moments. There were many struggles, but there were days where everything fit into place – Mother Nature came to play."
Blanchard echoes the filmmakers’ worry that "this small little relationship film is being marketed as a big, gory sharkfest." But for her, the terror of being in the water was very real. Day in and day out, the actors had to face the same question that Susan and Daniel ponder in Open Water: is it scarier to see or not see what’s in the water with you?
"I think not seeing things is scarier," says Travis, "particularly once you’ve established that something is there. The inability to identify and locate them is far more intimidating."
"On the two days we were with the sharks, we did modify our behaviour to deal with them," says Blanchard. "Don’t get me wrong – I was terrified. I was in tears some of the time, I was so scared. But it’s a different kind of fear than the low-level anxiety and dread I felt all day, everyday, for the rest of the shoot. There could be a shark swimming at me at 90 miles an hour and I didn’t know anything about it. Those days were more draining than the actual days with the sharks – it really is worse not seeing them." |
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