Dead in the Water

The Amphritrite is a ship with an all female crew. They are out tagging illegal fishing boats, who don't want to be tagged. Out in the Pacific, their ship runs into engine trouble as they run into a storm. Oddly, they come across a man floating in the ocean not dead from hypothermia or eaten by predators. The drag him aboard and PLOT SPOILER, we get a low budget "Alien" type parasite film. The technology doesn't exist for oil drilling at 35,000 feet and creatures from that depth simply can't live on the surface. Having gotten by that, the film lacked decent character build up and horrors. It was a bare bones script designed for a TV audience to watch, but not get too involved.

Before you go any further, make sure you read all the other reviews, because it's all true. This movie was made for people like me. It's friday evening, open some beers, eat some cheesy poofs, and BANG! This makes for entertainment, either way, too. Weather or not it's good or bad. I watch movies to be entertained, and this entertains. Sy Fy makes watching television entertaining sometimes I guess.

source: Dead in the Water

I don't know if there are crews made up of only women, but certainly this is the most original element of the film: moreover the girls are cute and nice. That this atmosphere is destroyed by a male body could perhaps be a feminist suggestion, almost like saying "we were better off alone". And the nocturnal atmosphere is well rendered. But in the initial part there is a heavy ellipse (not seen when the three girls return to the ship and carry the body) and the special effects are sometimes repulsive. Furthermore, the director interrupts too often with shots of the boat in the storm.

There are great creature/alien movies: Everything from Alien to The Thing. And then there's this. But, I like Sci-Fi's movies...they are just the thing when I just want to veg or otherwise occupy my time while doing other things, with something on in the background. Nothing new here except an all-female crew. Basically clueless crew gets into trouble of their own making, an alien/creature attacks, the make bad decisions and turn on each other. Regular cast of characters playing the roles we know so well, weakling, survivalist, martyr. Completely formulaic. On the plus side, there was very minimal CGI; most of it was 'live action'.

This film wasn't so bad... Yeah Right! A very strong start and not too bad acting considering it was a syfy film. Then all hell broke loose and the film flopped completely. Not to give too much away. The all female cast was a refreshing take on an already done and dusted plot of setting up a story to believe in. Let's just not mention the scenes where the ladies are fixing the engine - tee hee hee! Once the alien/monster/sea creature is revealed, complete bordom kicks in until when the film ends and a sigh of relief is given. With all that said. Not a bad try and not a bad story. But that's all that allows this film to score a fantastic 5 out of 10 stars. Back to the drawing board for syfy!

The movie starts with a bunch of women in a boat in trouble. Why not start with how they came to be that way. We're not invested in who they are or what they're trying to do.

A group of seven women are on a boat chasing a trawler that is illegally poaching fish. When they get lost in a fog bank, one of them spots a man in the water. They bring him aboard and, while checking his vitals, he goes nuts and whispers to one lady, "Kill me. Kill yourselves. End this." After one of them kills him (hey, he asked politely), they discover his body has small circular welts on it and they believe he has a deadly virus. I tuned into this SyFy premiere last night because I have previously enjoyed the work of writer-director Sheldon Wilson. He made an impression with the film SHALLOW GROUND (2004) and has worked steadily since, delivering enjoyable low budget fare. I was with this one for the first 50 minutes as the mystery reveals intriguing new twists and the atmosphere builds well. Unfortunately, at that point the plot lays itself bare and you realize this is just Sheldon Wilson's John Carpenter's THE THING (1982). Once that revelation hits, everything else pops into place. Ah, an all female crew instead of an all male team. Ah, the team watches a video on the stranger's phone of his team uncovering something. Ah, the stranger's team ended up discovering an previously unknown "alien" life form in the deepest part of the Arctic ocean. Ah, this squid looking thing jumps from person to person to remain alive. Bummer. I was hoping a film with an all female cast - who are all good - would have done something more original.

All women crew (we have to be P/C here!!), On a boat, in the middle of the ocean become "infected " by aquatic, alien creature! Think Alien with a "strong" female cast. Crew is picked off one by one, you get the picture. Predictable, and believe me, not any better just because there aren't any of those nasty men on board!🙄 Boring. At least it wasn't mostly women and one or two weak, wimpy men!😛