The Dive

It could be very mean to suggest the critical success of the two women stranded up a 2,000 foot high TV tower thriller Fall last year, would have filmmakers thinking of something similar elsewhere. The Dive shares some elements of the intensity of Fall but is very much its own film.

Sisters May (Louisa Krause) and Drew (Sophie Lowe) are on their annual diving trip and its soon clear that while they are both experienced divers there are issues. May comes over as controlling, which has Drew a more happy go lucky mentality. There’s a strain in the relationship that is developed as the film progresses.

But the meat of the film that while the pair are diving in frankly terrifying underwater caverns, a rockfall traps May deep underwater and it’s then a race against time as the air-supply begins to run out, amongst other things.

What then follows is a good-looking film from director Maximilian Erlenwein, co-written with Joachim Hedén that relies too much on things going wrong. The extra air tanks are buried under rocks, the car-jack to help shift the rock off May’s leg is in the boot of the car for which they don’t have a key and there are holes in the air-tubes, amongst other things.

This makes the film look bitty and at times seriously disjointed, in particular midway when Drew has to take something of a detour. That with a thread of memories of them with their father that tries to inject some context and viewer empathy into the relationship between the sisters effects the fluidity of the film.

Which is a shame as the film has some spectacular underwater sequences, as well as those in the cave that some in the audience could be very difficult to handle, as Erlenwein creates a dense claustrophobia using the poor lighting and contours of the environment very effectively.

The Dive will have its UK premiere at London FrightFest on 24 August with a UK wide release the following day.