This past Tuesday, I found myself with spare time on my hands after one of my classes got cancelled. Naturally, like most college students would do with an abundance of spare time, I opened Netflix to find a movie to entertain myself. 

I looked to the Netflix top 10 list for guidance and stumbled upon a movie called “Thrash.” From the outside, this movie looks like a modern version of Jaws or Sharknado, but I would venture to say that it is a combination of both in the worst ways possible.

The premise of the movie is a hurricane hitting a coastal town in South Carolina, bringing with it hundreds of Bull Sharks with a thirst for blood. The run time of the movie is less than an hour and a half, however, which leaves little room for character development or world building. 

This short runtime forces the film to quickly introduce several thinly developed characters, including Dakota (Whitney Peak), a teenager with agoraphobia grappling with the death of her mother; Lisa (Phoebe Dynevor), a pregnant woman abandoned in an unfamiliar town by her fiancé; and Dale (Djimon Hounsou), Dakota’s uncle and a marine biologist. Each is given only brief context, reinforcing the film’s rushed pacing and lack of depth.

The characters themselves have overly generic backgrounds and bring nothing unique to the table.

Throughout the course of the film, I found it hard to resist the urge to just pick up my phone and look at Instagram reels instead, because even the intense scenes did not capture my attention.

While the film did have decent enough CGI and camera work the actors simply failed to capture real raw emotion in any scene. The dialogue itself was also nothing special and was predictable down to the letter.

Along with the sub par script, the scenes themselves were hard to not laugh at sometimes with how many Hollywood cliches are present. It’s as if the directors asked themselves before filming how they could remake Sharknado but without the obvious humor and a significantly higher budget. 

For me, my favorite scene was when Lisa (Phoebe Dynevor) somehow gave birth in flooded water while swimming. Just 30 seconds later, she killed a shark that was charging at her as if it were nothing, all after being in labor for presumably hours, by the way.

Overall, I would say that if you are just looking for a movie you can throw on in the background while you have company over, it is perfect as it will force you to be social with your friends. But, if you are looking for a thought provoking and chilling thriller that will leave you on the edge of your seat I would recommend just turning on Jaws or even maybe just doing your overdue assignments instead.

If the film intrigued you, you may have more to look forward to, as it ends with a hint at a possible sequel. Unfortunately, that’s one I’ll be skipping