I decided to watch Deep Blue Sea as part of the Shark Week festivities this year. I hadn’t seen it in over twenty years when it first came out. I watched it several times because I had HBO at the time, and it was on heavy rotation. I didn’t remember all that much about the plot, but I did remember the LL Cool J song that played during the credits. Deep Blue Sea is a hell of a fun movie that doesn’t shy away from the carnage the super sharks cause.
Deep Blue Sea was directed by Renny Harlin and written by Duncan Kennedy, Donna Powers, and Wayne Powers. I didn’t know Harlin directed this when I first saw it. I grew up enjoying several of his previous movies so learning that isn’t that surprising. Kennedy wrote the initial draft of the script with both Powers providing the final draft of the script. The story blends the worlds of horror and sci-fi with the sci-fi being more on the soft sci-fi end of things. The characters are also interesting with some characters going against expectations.
The cast is pretty interesting looking back now. Saffron Burrows, Thomas Jane, LL Cool J, Jacquelin McKenzie, Michael Rapaport, Stellan Skarsgård, and Samuel L. Jackson star in Deep Blue Sea. Jane ended up having chemistry with almost everyone in the cast. Burrows is the only person who lacks chemistry with him. Her entire performance is cold to everyone with her character being focused solely on her research and nothing else. This even makes her function as the human antagonist of the movie while Jackson’s character was set up that while only for him to be a more open warm character. LL Cool J plays the comic relief that is isolated from the rest of the cast for a good portion of the movie.
The CG effects for the most part don’t look too terrible even with it being over twenty years old. There are moments where they look absolutely terrible, even when the movie came out. The practical effects for the sharks look fantastic. The music by Trevor Rabin is fantastic. The score adds a lot to the movie adding an incredible amount of tension throughout the movie.
Deep Blue Sea offers an interesting contrast to the rest of big budget horror movies that came out at the time. Ryan Hollinger did a video on the movie about a year ago and I recommend watching that video if you want to hear him talk about the plot. He also just makes quality content so that’s another endorsement. Deep Blue Sea is available to watch in HBO Max. I give Deep Blue Sea 8.5 parrots out of 10.