“Despite being a film featuring a ton of water, Thrash ends up being as shallow as a kiddie pool...”
Thrash was a film released in 2026, written and directed by Tommy Wirkola and starring Phoebe Dynevor as Lisa, alongside Whitney Peak as Dakota. It is ultimately about a coastal South Carolina town facing a catastrophic Category 5 hurricane. A massive storm surge breaches the sea wall and completely floods the area, introducing a far more terrifying threat when a spilled tanker truck of animal blood attracts a pack of ravenous bull sharks directly into the submerged streets and homes. This forces a heavily pregnant woman and an agoraphobic survivor to fight for their lives against the rising, predator-infested waters.
I have absolutely no room to say anything or make the comparison myself, because I’ve never seen it... but doesn’t this film’s concept feel like a serious version of Sharknado? Instead of a tornado tossing sharks into a town, you have a hurricane? I think, in general, the more appropriate and accurate comparison would undoubtedly be Crawl. That was also a serious disaster movie that flooded streets and homes, except it had alligators show up instead of sharks... and honestly, I really liked Crawl. So, ultimately, what I was hoping for with Thrash was a good, tense shark film. Did I get that? Kinda, but not really.
This is a film where, for the most part, what you expect is what you get... which is a basic shark thriller. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s not the best shark thriller out there, and it’s certainly not the worst either. It’s got some fair performances, as well as some really strong set designs with the standing water in the town. The sharks don’t look terrible either, and narratively, you’re following around two groups of people who are both stranded in their homes. They’re basically playing “the floor is lava” and standing on furniture to avoid the sharks swimming in the houses, and as the floodwater rises, so does the threat itself.
To humanize the characters and make you care about them in general, you have a very pregnant woman who is about to pop. Obviously, labor carries a lot of blood, which naturally attracts sharks. Her main speed bump to getting out of there is this other woman who suffers from agoraphobia, who would rather stay in her house and drown than leave for safety. And look, I understand agoraphobia. I am prone to it myself if I don’t force myself to leave the house every now and again, but if your house is being swallowed by flooding and sharks, the agoraphobic argument isn’t very strong.
In general, this is a film that I think works well enough for what it was going for, but it doesn’t really offer the audience all that much more to chew on than... shark terror. The human characters do have depth to a degree, but not a ton of it. It really just jumps—or rather, dives head-first—into the terror of it all and lets the characters do their thing, try to survive, etc. The film just tries to have a good time and suck the audience into feeling afraid of sharks in general. Despite being a film featuring a ton of water, Thrash ends up being as shallow as a kiddie pool, and hence, there’s really not much more to discuss about the movie in terms of a reason why you should watch it.
Thrash is definitely much more in the vein of a “watch if you have nothing else to do” movie. Put it on while you’re doing chores if you need background noise, because this is one of those films where you can miss a good chunk of it, come back an hour later, and really... narratively... you won’t be missing much. It’s not a terrible film or anything. It doesn’t strike you as, “God, I have to turn this off.” It has moments that are good, and like I said, the set designs are pretty solid and the performances are strong enough. It’s fair. It’s just nothing spectacular.
Unbiased/Technical Score: 28/50 (56%)
Biased/Entertainment Score: 26/50 (52%)
Total Combined Score: 54/100 (54% or 2.5/5 on Letterboxd)