Following the struggles and efforts of a group of best friends, who go sailing together, but when their boat hits a hard rock and sinks, incidents come to challenge them, as they have been chased by a white shark.
Traucki manages to keep the tension running throughout the film's 94-minute runtime even before the shark ever shows up to make dinner out of the cast.
The film is good at what it does, goes to plan and concludes in a modest 88 minutes. Yet if that's success, it's also a failing, for it's not particularly memorable or distinctive.
For most of the time, Traucki manages the horror well, with the menace inferred. Particularly spine-chilling is the scene in which Walshe-Howling is exploring the air pocket in the upturned boat. Sound tells the story.
Terrible scripting, unconvincing acting, wonky continuity and feeble atmospherics induce an overpowering feeling of tedium that cancels out any potential for true terror.
... squirm-worthy survival adventure ... Go ahead, take the plunge. 'The Reef' is an authentic nail-biter (toe-nibbler?) that lives up to its fun come-on: 'Pray that you drown first.'
