Dead Calm

Randi Reckless4.0

Not the last time Billy Zane would torment a redhead on a boat.

Molly Laich5.0

They didn’t have to show us the toddler going slow motion through the window in the first five minutes, but they did. The dog is just a work of art.

Josh Lewis4.0

Insanely tight home invasion thriller that in typical Australian genre movie fashion takes place almost entirely during the day on a sail boat. Was not surprised to see George Miller and his Road Warrior cinematographer Dean Semler were very involved with this. Not much going on underneath the hood of this grieving couple forced into choosing to keep living via lean suspense mechanic setpieces but they're so well-constructed you don't really care. It's all eerie atmosphere filled with claustrophobic anticipation followed by eventual explosions of very sudden and gross action; did not expect to see a kid flying through a windshield or a face melted by a flare in extreme gruesome detail when I cued this up. Particularly love how much of it is scored to the sounds of wooden hull creaks, light water crashes and radar blips (when it's not doing its moody, breathy tribal chants) as we watch Neill & Kidman's stressed faces read the psychological/physical logistics of their situation with their eyes and try figure out an escape from sweaty psycho Billy Zane who is operating on previously unheard of levels of deranged pretty boy perversity. There's also an erotic element to this that is very effectively sleazy, and climaxes on an image of Kidman's hair being washed with goopy, bloody hands. Underrated!