Cage Dive

Year: 2017
Director: Gerald Rascionato
Cast: Joel Hogan, Josh Potthoff, Megan Peta Hill


Plot: Two brothers and a girl travel to Australia to participate in cage diving with sharks, and plan to film their entire experience so that they can appear on a reality show. But when their boat gets hit by a tidal wave, the trio are forced to survive in open water surrounded by sharks.


Review: Cage Dive is supposed to be the third film in the Open Water franchise, though the film itself didn't use the Open Water title. Anyway, let's get to the review.

Jeff and Josh are a pair of half brothers, who along with Jeff's girlfriend Megan, plan on signing up for a reality show, and for their entry video, they travel to Australia to go cage diving with sharks. Naturally, things go wrong when their boat is hit with a tidal wave and they wind up in the ocean with no protection against the deadly sharks. Will they be rescued before they become shark food?

Considering this is a found footage film, you already know the answer to that. The film begins with a broken camera found on the ocean floor by a diver, who retrieves the memory card and plays back the footage for the audience. They even include interviews with the brothers' cousin living in Australia and some news footage to make it feel authentic. And while it is a nice touch by director and writer Gerald Rascionato, it doesn't hide the film's weaknesses. 

The main weakness here is Rascionato's attempt to give the trio a background, which lasts for quite some time. The first third of the film features the trio preparing for the trip, as Josh acts on his secret feelings for his brother's girl, which creates a love triangle that comes into play towards the end of the second act. Personally I felt that this angle wasn't necessary and only felt like padding on top of a story that could work on its own, and it made the film feel longer even though it only runs 80 minutes.

Another thing would be Rascionato's decision to have Megan commit a bone headed move in the second act. Now, I know all about people making dumb decisions in horror movies, but this one takes the cake. This move was a means to an end, but Rascionato could have justified it way better than that.

Acting wise, Joel Hogan, Josh Potthoff and Megan Peta Hill are convincing enough as Jeff, Josh and Megan respectively, but the occasionally poor writing lets them down and makes them look bad.

On the plus side, the cinematography is good despite it being shaky due to the found footage aspect. Like most films of its kind, it utilises night vision during the night scenes, and even throws in a handful of blackouts every now and then when something bad hits the camera. Authenticity is the one thing the film got right.

In the end, Cage Dive is merely a decent shark attack film which uses its found footage aspect well, but not much else. (6/10)