STORYLINE: Follows a scuba diver who, while looking for his father’s remains, is swallowed by an 80-foot, 60-ton sperm whale and has just one hour to get out before his oxygen runs out.  (IMDb)

  In 1998, Dustin Hoffman and Samuel L. Jackson found terrors at the bottom of the ocean in Sphere.  Alligators came inland during a hurricane, during Crawl (2019).  It was deep under the ocean surface, where Kristen Stewart was frightened in Underwater (2020).  Whalefall is the latest horror feature to takes viewers under the water, for a fright fest,

Man v Nature, going ten rounds of scares is a running trend in horror.  Jaws (1975) did it the best, as a great white shark was the creature of terror.  A grizzly bear was the animal of nightmares in Grizzly (1976).  We are back in the water, with a sperm  whale in Whalefall.

In this tale of terror, the central character is basically buried, alive as he ends up eaten alive in the belly of his eventual nemesis, the sperm whale.  As he figures how to get outl, he is reflecting on his life with his dad.

The storyline in the belly of the beast is claustrophobic, and filled with underwhelming thrills.  These sequceas are shot fast paced and in your face style of filmmaking. Combine that with the location of being inside a whale’s stomach, I was left with a sense of being qieezy.

The secondary story, about the relationship between father and son was unnecessarily dramatic.  Whalefall is a horror film, from a point of view a creature feature, dramatics is not the strong suit.  Still, a bit of effort would have been appreciated.  A bit of work on the dialogue would have gone a long way.  There is a difference between cheesey and just bad,

  Whalefall has a claustrophobic storyline with underwhelming thrillers, mixed with a bad dramatic story.

Until next time, I will see you at the movies!