KILLER WHALE Review: Aquatic Thriller Arrives Dead in the Water

Steven Spielberg's Jaws kicked off three things in 1975.

It birthed the entire concept of the summer blockbuster, it started Spielberg's reign as a blockbuster king, and it gave rise to the sharksploitation subgenre of horror. Dozens upon dozens of horror/thrillers about killer sharks hit screens in the years that followed -- and they're still making a few each year even now. There were four just last year!

One anomaly among them was 1977's Orca, a film that took the bold step of making its aquatic "monster" an orca -- a killer whale -- instead of a shark. It was far from a hit, despite being a wild, entertaining ride with memorable performances and practical effects, and the first killer orca movie quickly became the last. Until now.

Don't get too excited, though, as Killer Whale flops its way onto the screen stuffed to the blowhole with a steady sludge of utterly abysmal cg effects that gut the film of anything remotely worthwhile.

Maddie (Virginia Gardner) is still mourning the death of her boyfriend during an attempted robbery months earlier when her best friend Trish (Mel Jarnson) arrives, hoping to help her move on. She's booked them a trip to Thailand to spend some time in the sun and maybe even see Maddie's favorite animal, an orca. Luckily for them there's one in a nearby water park. Unluckily for them? The orca has killed one of its trainers, been released back into the wild, is pissed off about being held in captivity for so long, and now has the two friends trapped in a remote atoll.

There's nothing wrong with Killer Whale's story that a better script couldn't fix. The idea of an antagonist with an understandable grudge is a good start and is a nod of sorts to the vengeance-hungry whale in Orca. It's everything else in the narrative that feels half-baked.

Maddie's hearing-impaired due to a gun blast during the robbery, and the film plays for half a second like there might be some attempt at communication between her and the whale -- the whale and her hearing aid seem to share a frequency? -- but that goes nowhere. The whale kills a trainer and a cleaner, leading to a voice on the phone telling the security guard to get rid of it, which he does on ridiculously short notice, even though it apparently involved moving the creature to this remote atoll. Also, a late reveal feels as unnecessary as it is ridiculous, and only serves to earn a laugh.

All of this would be easily forgivable, though, if Killer Whale's whale-centric thrills delivered the goods. Unfortunately, while the film is played straight, the effects look like they're straight out of a personal pc. Stock footage of whales strikes a stark opposition to cheap cg that turn every encounter into soggy, embarrassing disappointment. Even a simple shot of the two friends standing on a beach is created with an incredibly shoddy cg backdrop, and the ugliness simply drains the film of anything worthwhile.

This is the curse of the overwhelming majority of killer shark movies these days. No matter how well-intentioned and talented the filmmakers might be, the minimal budget afforded to their cg sharks leaves the films dead in the water. Last year's Beast of War got it right by using effective practical creatures, but it was a rarity among cg-heavy duds like Into the Deep and Shark Bait.

It's a shame, as Jo-Anne Brechin's direction is otherwise solid, and both Gardner and Jarnson do good work. You buy both their friendship and their shared terror, even if the script and visuals ultimately let them both down. Killer Whale stands out from the pack due to its orca threat, but imagine if it stood apart for being... good.

The film opens Friday, January 16, in select theaters, On Demand, and On Digital, via Lionsgate.