Did anyone else notice the shadow on Susan's face when she first realizes the boat is gone?

It's when she first pops up out of the water and says, "Hey, where's the boat?" You can plainly see the shadow of the boat rail where the camera was. I wanted to say "Just get on that boat that's casting the shadow across your face." Kinda took me out of it a little but I still liked the movie.

I've not seen the movie yet, but the story reminds me of a story my sister told me about five years ago.

She was down in Mexico doing some scuba diving, and normally one person stays on the boat to let them know if bad weather or whatever is coming up. The day started out perfect, not a cloud in the sky, then a heavy storm just came up out of nowhere. The person on her boat contacted them somehow and they came up and went to shore. But there was another boat in the general vicinity where they didn't leave anybody on board, and the storm came and sank the boat. Those divers came up to find a storm and no boat, and eventually their air ran out and they drowned.

I'll definately watch this movie, but I'll wait for the DVD (I only watch maybe one movie a year in the theaters, but I rent two or so movies per week ($1 rentals for new releases around here)).

I think that you folks who are saying "I'll rent this one instead" will be FAR more disappointed with the film viewed at home. There are certainly some scenes (one big scene in particular) that will just not work if you're watching at home on the small screen...or even your big screen.

Do yourselves a favor, and go OUT and see it if you are at all interested in this film...

Couldn't disagree more. B/c of what the film was shot with, the movie has the feel of someone shooting their own vacation on video. On my 51 inch screen the movie would have the same effect as seeing it in the theater. This is the type of movie that really dosn't benefit at all seeing it in a theater or at home.

Is there a website that tells what happened to the real people?

i was dissapointed with this movie. i was very excited to see it but i was so bored and just left the theater feeling like i wasted money.

http://msn.away.com/outside/features...steries_2.html

I thought she was cute until I saw the nude scene of her (she's got a lot of meat on her). Then in the water she kept getting worse& worse.

She was a terrible actress like others have said. I give the movie 1.5 stars as it did have some moments of tension and the surprising ending.

I guess it was another movie that I was expecting too much cuz of the hype (sorta like the Blair Witch Project). This is one movie that I definitely won't be watching again.

Thank goodness for that. The Blair Witch Project was about three annoying imbeciles walking in circles who weren't even bright enough to know to follow a stream out of the woods. (Streams don't go in circles, see?)


Open Water is better than Blair Witch. A lot better. The situation in Open Water is genuinely hopeless, instead of requiring the actors to have IQs 30 points short of Forrest Gump for the movie to work as Blair Witch needed. Open Water also is much more realistic in that this could really happen, and doesn't require some supernatural explanation for any of it.

And the ending of Open Water was perfect, IMO

i don't remember the film revealing anything truthful about their predicament. it all seemed fairly contrived to me. in my view, the film quickly deteriorated into sadism; we watched two doomed souls meet their violent end without the emergence of any spiritual, humanistic or truthful insight to their characters within the context of 'a hopeless situation'. it was about as interesting to me as feeding goldfish... with a budget.

I think that's what the sharks were thinking as well, but they didn't ming the extra weight.

But seriously. What's wrong with a curvy figure? Good lord! It's no wonder so many women and girl's have self esteem issues. They can be gorgeous with a little meat and once some guy has the gall to say something negative, it crushes them big time. While I am a guy, I am starting to agree with the assertion that men are pricks by nature.

If it was me, it would have gone much quicker...

"Where's the boat?"
"Gone."
"Can you see land, or any other boat?"
"Nope."
"Ok, nice knowing ya... " [pulls out knife, stabs self in jugular]

I keep myself in good shape (avid workout freak) so I expect women that I'm attracted to to do the same. Everyone is attracted to different types of ppl. I'm just attracted to physically fit ppl. Of course, that's just one part of the equation. Personality, intelligence, etc. are all part of the equation.

NFC!






....no fat chicks, I know, I'm childish

I disagree, we saw...

Dude, the bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin. That's what I said!

i thought it was pretty sadistic to watch two people be terrorized and tortured emotionally as well as physically without offering anything to balance that. i don't think the emergence of a glimmer of hope/truth/humanity would be contrived at all. imposing false drama on the characters (like blaming each other) is contrived... and trite... and doesn't reveal anything about the characters we didn't already know.

This is a horror movie based loosely on a true story that's trying for realism. That is not sadistic. And couples getting in a fight and blaming each other over something is also realistic. However, character proclaiming some life-affirming statement is completely contrived Hollywood and not realistic at all. This is a horror movie attempting realism in its horror and I think it succeeds quite well at that.

Oh great, this brings back memories of neverending "Follow the stream!!" posts from haters back when Blair Witch was released. As a hiker, I can tell you that just following a stream doesn't always necessarily mean you'll get outta the woods, but that's another movie and a tired old debate so.....


I finally saw Open Water tonight, a little late in the game so here are some thoughts:

I was looking forward to seeing this immensely since seeing the terrific trailer. It seemed to have promise and the concept alone is troubling to think about. Unfortunately the director seems to have just graduated from Champlain College film school, with a just barely passing grade at that. The movie is amateurish and unconvincing. The decision to shoot on video, in an effort to make the suspense more propulsive and interpersonal, backfires. It just looks like a kid wielding the camera. The acting is downright horrible and in this case it happens to be the film's Achilles heel. The "naturalistic" performances simply do not work. It felt like "movie" acting with "movie" dialogue, anything but the documentary-style the director was aiming for. When they're having their argument and the guy starts screaming it rings completely false. Never once did I feel that these two were actually a couple or that they were stranded. The pacing is inconsistent, many of the edits sloppy. The ending was a bit unexpected but by that point I didn't give two shits about the characters so it's a wasted opportunity flushed down the crapper. In the end, the film had a couple of jumps and some of the soundtrack is pretty good, but it's a concept that never reaches the potential and promise of that trailer and, again, Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis will most likely never have acting careers in Hollywood after this. Had a competent director done this, like Spielberg who excels at minimalist suspense in films like Duel, it might've been a classic. Instead, it's a decent one-night rental.

The Blair Witch Project shits all over this.

i'm not talking about forcing hollywood clichés onto the drama, that would be much worse. i'm talking about the lack of believable/credible drama in a film striving for realism. perhaps some examples of what i have in mind are in order. films that have featured realistic characters in dire circumstances balanced with a bit of hope or humanity would be films like breaking the waves, the son, george washington, blue, et cetera.

this was not an effective horror film in my opinon because I (and most of the audience I saw it with) didn't see the two as anything other than 'actors playing a role'. by the laughter it was quite obvious that the audience couldn't care less about the divers, bought into the film's inherent sadisctic nature, and eagerly anticipated an example of an effective horror film: 'shaun of the dead' goes places you'd never expect that sort of film to go. between the gore and the slapstick, there are undeniably truthful and human moments that keep the extremes of its genre anchored.

I enjoyed the movie.

There is no hype over here so you can prolly go in there more neutral.
I really was looking forward seeing this movie after the first time I saw the trailer.
I've read about boats forgetting divers in the ocean and though its not my worst fear, I never enjoyed dives too much which were located far off the shore

I think the movie is well done. Sure, the actors are not the best but I don't think that it really hurt the movie. It was well done and certainly felt different to most of the standard hollywood stuff.
Especially the ending really got me

I saw Open Water tonight and I really enjoyed it. I agree that the opening part was pretty terrible, but I really got absorbed in the movie once the couple got out into the water.

I was really blindsided by the ending. I assumed that the 'Based on a True' story thing was referring to another couple that got lost out on the water for a few days while scuba diving. I think they were British, and they were eventually rescued. As I was watching the movie, I had all the same assumptions that the characters did, 'Oh, we're not going to die. We'll be found sooner or later. Everything is going to be okay'. It's funny, because they became aware of the hopelessness of their situation.


That was the function behind the guy who had forgotten his mask and borrowed the girl's. The dude running the boat had marked down that 20 people went diving. Since the girl's boyfriend went back into the water with Forgot-His-Mask-Guy, he was checked off twice. And Forgot-His-Mask guy's check provided the 20th check, making it appear that everyone had returned.

Count me as someone who was waiting for the characters' demise.

I'm sure both Travis and Ryan will have some short term gigs on some sci-fi channel series soon.

*Ahem*.......NAME CALL, anyone???

Y'know, something that they do in kindergarten class?