Aquatic horror is a tricky type of genre offshoot, incredibly difficult to get right especially in the shadow of the legendary Jaws. Fully knowing that nothing can ever attempt to compete, when these movies hit right, they are a ton of fun. Last year’s Dangerous Animals proved there’s a way to make aquatic horror still feel fresh. Hell, even embracing full-blown camp can be a great window in (see: Piranha 3D, Shark Night 3D). Unfortunately, director Jo-Anne Brechin’s Killer Whale is neither serious enough to be scary, nor is it ridiculous enough to be a funny blast. Instead, it tries to emulate The Shallows, cornering a final girl against a massive beast she cannot possibly hope to defeat. Ironically enough, Virginia Gardner has starred in this type of movie before when it comes to being stranded at a remote location without any hope of outside help: 2022’s Fall, which has already been greenlit for two sequels. Don’t expect Killer Whale to receive a similar treatment. As much as it wants to be a thoughtful creature feature that balances environmental commentary, overcoming trauma, and survival horror, Killer Whale falls prey to its most basic of instincts.
The setup almost works. In a brutal prologue, a marine attraction ominously dubbed World of Orca, sees a captive female orca named Ceto turn on her handler. The effects here are a tad wonky, but maybe it happens so quickly that casuals won’t even notice. This sequence is followed by a seemingly unrelated but emotionally charged inciting incident. Maddie (Gardner), a cello prodigy on the verge of graduation, survives a random diner robbery that leaves her hearing permanently damaged and her boyfriend, Chad, brutally murdered. This loss silences Maddie both literally and artistically, grounding the first act in genuine trauma that promises a decent final girl arc.
One year later, Maddie remains stuck in grief, still working at the diner, her cello abandoned and broken. A trip to Thailand’s Akan Sea Islands with her well-meaning but reckless friend, Trish, could be a full reset. There, the specter of Ceto returns when the women learn the whale was transferred to a local marine park, where her calf has since died. Maddie has a strongly opposed stance against keeping animals in captivity. This adds a thematic layer that screenwriter Katharine McPhee fails to follow through. It does, however, spark a friendship with chiseled local, Josh (Mitchell Hope). The girls initially try to recruit him for paddleboard lessons, but he proposes a different type of side quest. The trio break into World of Orca at night, hoping to cause some mayhem. Ceto looms silently behind glass, her scarred eye staring back at Maddie.
While World of Orca would have been a far more compelling setting for the film, we instead take a jet ski detour to an allegedly haunted portion of reef. Secluded enough to disrupt the character dynamics, at this point the survival horror kicks in when the trio get trapped by a loose Ceto. Despite the inherently terrifying setup, the visual effects are distractingly cheap, undercutting tension around every turn. Depicting an orca on a murderous rampage was always going to be tricky, but nothing about the way this plays out follows logic. They try to spin that Ceto still thinks she remain in captivity, thus taking out her anger on any humans she comes upon. How does this make sense, and how exactly did Ceto even get… way out in the reef? Killer Whale seems less interested in answering basic questions than in simply tossing Maddie and company into harm’s way.
To its credit, Maddie’s character development does receive a lengthy focus. Chad’s death remains central, and his absence shapes Maddie’s choices. Unfortunately, most people who come to see a movie called Killer Whale probably do not give an iota of a care about trauma. There have been enough horror flicks focused on that very concept in recent years that it no longer holds the same weight. The premise begs for heightened camp or pulpy excess, yet the muted, self-serious approach instead exposes every weakness in both effects and script. Strangeness in tone and an unwillingness to get goofy leaves Killer Whale a rather toothless affair.
Behold the majesty of the Killer Whale, unleashing its fury in limited release theaters, digital platforms, and VOD on Friday, January 16th.
