Review: Whalefall

Directed by Brian Duffield and based on Daniel Kraus's novel of the same name, Whalefall plunges viewers into an unimaginably eerie, extremely terrifying environment that plays on humanity's primal fear of being either hunter or prey. As introspective as it is, Whalefall ultimately tells a shocking story about grief and the rift that can form between fathers and sons. Austin Abrams gives his all with devotion

The new survival thriller Whalefall checked a few of my phobia boxes, so my critical reaction to this film was always measured by how well it tickled my initial fears. And (I guess?) I'm happy to report that the movie does this very well at times.

Sure, directed by Brian Duffield and based on Daniel Krauss' best-selling book of the same name, Whalefall has a simple yet incredibly compelling premise: young scuba diver Jay Gardiner (Resident Evil's Austin Abrams) is swallowed by a giant sperm and must figure out how to escape the whales. It takes He has an hour of air time left, so his fight is essentially playing out on screen in real time.

What happens inside the whale's belly is brought to life by Duffield and his team of artists with a terrifying, painful and claustrophobic intensity. (They made the whale's belly for Jonah's sake!) There are a lot of horrible ways for Jay to die before the oxygen runs out there, whether it's getting crushed by the whale's limbs, or succumbing to all the sand injuries he's sustained from the toxic environment or other toxic sea whales.

Deeper emotional layers are added by revealing Jay's reason for diving that day: He was searching for the remains of his father, Mitt (Josh Brolin), a popular diver and whale-watching boat captain in the central California community. Suffering from mesothelioma, which robbed him of the ability to dive and connect with nature, Mitt drowned himself in the opening scene rather than continue suffering.

Jay refused to see his father in his final days after a desperate fight. Jay's grief and guilt over his strained relationship with his abusive father consumes him, and as he desperately tries to find a way to escape the whale, a flashback to the lessons Mitt taught him about diving and nature is vital to his slim chance of trying to get MacGyver out of this situation.

Whalefall is a gritty survival story, but what sets it apart in the man vs. nature/beast genre is that it's actually about a father and son who don't know how to relate to each other. It is not until he is close to death that Jay begins to truly understand his father and finds peace. This makes the third act very exciting as the symbol of the whale and its role in nature is intertwined with Jay's oxygen-deprived thoughts about the dead. The device inches up to the edge of the void, but thankfully never falls into it. It's weird but honest and moving enough to work.

Brolin as Mitt is basically Robert Duvall in The Great Santini meets Quint from Jaws. She looks like a hells angel, talks like a new age hippie and can basically get along with everyone except her son. In the hands of a less skilled actor, this character could have been unbearable, but Brolin makes him flesh and blood and ultimately, vulnerable.

But this is Austin Abrams' film, and he carries it with amazing commitment.

As Jay, Abrams is physically positioned with the camera in his face for the entire hour he's trapped inside the whale, so there's never a moment when he can't offer a real reaction to what's unfolding. He conveys a lot of emotion with just his eyes and some grunts (he uses a snorkel almost the entire time inside the whale so he can't speak clearly). In the scenes on the ground, Abrams prevents the college-aged Jay from looking like a jerk, his emotional avoidance more of a survival mechanism than anything less mature.

Whalefall plunges the viewer into an unimaginably terrifying, ultra-horrifying and terrifying environment that plays on the primal human fears of being either predator or prey. As visceral as the film is, Fall of the Whale is ultimately a moving story about grief and the rift that can create between fathers and sons. The exceptional Austin Abrams anchors the entire effort with excruciating dedication.