Things I watched: Dead Calm - An unsettling psychological thriller set on the high seas

This one came onto my radar in a roundabout way. I was watching old YouTube footage of Orson Welles interviews and discovered he had an unfinished project called The Deep based on a novel by Charles Williams. The film stayed in limbo for decades before finally adapted into a different film by Philip Noyce. It's not Welles’ vision but a taut, suspenseful thriller in its own right.

The story takes a young couple, Sam Neill and Nicole Kidman, across the Pacific in a bid to forget about a family tragedy. Their journey is disrupted when they encounter a sinking schooner and a young man rowing toward them. Agitated and unwell, he's quickly taken aboard. But soon suspicion grows and he seizes the yacht, taking poor Nicole with him.

The plot then follows two arcs: Sam trying to save his bacon aboard the vessel fated for the ocean deep, and Nicole trying to curb the mysterious man's psychotic behavior. His instability drives the suspense with Nicole’s growing awareness of his weaknesses, eventually leading to a plan to rescue Sam. Every encounter between them feels fraught with psychological warfare.

One thing I especially love is how the tension is amplified by the ocean. Vast and unpredictable, it transforms the narrative into an exercise in claustrophobia. The isolation is heightened simply by the whole film being set aboard the yacht, making every decision feel monumental, such as the repeated moments when Nicole tries to load the gun that could simply blow him away.

Would Orson Welles have approved? It's hard to say but I did. The movie blends psychological horror with thrilling adventure. The ending sucks but it was altered by the studio months after shooting wrapped up because they wanted a clearer end. Forget that part exists and you've got 90 minutes of excellent filmmaking. In my opinion, very much an underappreciated gem.

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