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- 2023
- RLJE Films
- 1 h 31 m
- 2023
- RLJE Films
- 1 h 31 m
Summary Two sisters go diving at a beautiful, remote location. One of the sisters is struck by a rock, leaving her trapped 28 meters below. With dangerously low levels of oxygen and cold temperatures, it is up to her sister to fight for her life.
Directed By: Maximilian Erlenwein
Written By: Joachim Hedén
- 2023
- RLJE Films
- 1 h 31 m
- 2023
- RLJE Films
- 1 h 31 m
The Dive
57
6.1
Where to Watch
Summary Two sisters go diving at a beautiful, remote location. One of the sisters is struck by a rock, leaving her trapped 28 meters below. With dangerously low levels of oxygen and cold temperatures, it is up to her sister to fight for her life.
Directed By: Maximilian Erlenwein
Written By: Joachim Hedén
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 5 Critic Reviews
57
20% Positive
1 Review
1 Review
80% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 5 Critic Reviews
57
20% Positive
1 Review
1 Review
80% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
If The Dive’s final stretch feels a bit less urgent than what precedes it, one appreciates that the filmmakers did not pile on the usual melodramatic gotchas, hewing to a relatively realistic course of events.
The Dive uses its underwater setting to add new thrills to a formulaic survivalist story, even if its attempts at emotional depth end up feeling a little shallow.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 12 User Ratings
6.1
33% Positive
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
67% Mixed
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 12 User Ratings
6.1
33% Positive
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
67% Mixed
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
Nothing special but stilll exciting due to the loneliness of the underwater world. The fact that it is possible is terrifying.
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If there's such a genre as "tension movie" then this would fall into it. It is one of those films where a single incident is used to ratchet up the tension while the story plays out in (sort of) real-time. And it must have been hard work doing the bulk of this underwater. The good: the two central actors are OK, the story is mostly good, and the photography is excellent. The bad: I felt more characterisation was needed so we cared more (some backstory was alluded to but never fully realised), and the pacing was a bit too varied.
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The film itself has a commendable logic and credibility, but perhaps lacks a little of the pulse-racing intensity that might have made it a more obviously commercial proposition.
What follows is a race against the clock, cleverly constructed by director Maximilian Erlenwein and co-writer Joachim Hedén. Their script throws in plenty of calamities to nobble the diver’s escape, but didn’t quite manage – for me at least – to spark a vertiginous clammy terror.
The Dive feels routine, a soggy journey from point A to point B that doesn’t do anything interesting enough to make it stand out in the dog days of summer.
127 Hours under the sea or 47 Meters Down without the sharks. The Dive takes a scary idea of being trapped under a rock but only this time it’s underwater. When sisters May (Louisa Krause) and Drew (Sophie Lowe) go scuba diving at a beautiful and extremely secluded location things go horrendously wrong when one gets trapped 28 meters below. With oxygen levels dropping to dangerously low levels by the minute it’s up to her sister to save her before it’s too late. And that’s why we don’t go scuba diving in a completely secluded area no matter how picturesque it is.
“The calmer you are the less air you use,” well The Dive is anything but calm and it’s not recommended for anyone about to go scuba diving. Watching the events unfold in such a desperate situation forces you to question how you’d survive such a terrifying ordeal, not me though I’d well be dead. In fact I’d never end up in this situation in the first place, though that doesn’t diminish how terrifying a position like this would be. But to call The Dive a horror movie is a bit of a stretch, but whoever organises the Odeon Scream Unseen chose it anyway.
You know exactly where this movie is going and all you’re doing is waiting for the incident to happen that gets one of the sisters trapped at the bottom of the ocean. Unfortunately the attempts to build an emotional connection doesn’t really work. The two leads don’t have great chemistry together, along with an average script it doesn’t keep a level of suspense and tension that the trailer made it seem. Because of this it drags in places and although it’s got some good moments it’s nothing special. Thankfully it doesn’t drift too far into the unbelievable but overall it’s not memorable and doesn’t do anything new to the survival movie genre. It’s also a remake of the Swedish film Tödliche Tiefen (Breaking Surface) which I’d guess had more suspense and atmosphere than The Dive, which makes you wonder why this remake exists at all. Still though, it was a lot better than the Meg 2.
Recommended for those who enjoy these kinds of survival movies. It’s worth a watch once, but that’s about it. For anyone looking for some real scares, there are actual horror movies in the cinema right now you could see instead.
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Characters experiencing their fears and traumas while trapped in life-threatening situations is a genre that consistently captivates audiences, often drawing them in more for the inherent danger than for the dramatic impact the characters can conjure up.
In the case of The Dive, this formula works well, as its premise excels at portraying the harrowing experience of being submerged underwater with dwindling oxygen levels. However, any aspirations for narrative depth quickly fade, especially when the film struggles to maintain a constant level of tension, exacerbated by the frequent and ill-advised use of excessive flashback sequences that fail to evoke genuine emotional reactions.
The Dive is the kind of film you might stumble upon while browsing your streaming platforms, lacking significant marketing presence and, as far as I know, in many markets it was available on VOD.
It might struggle to hold your attention, but if you're looking for some background noise, it might serve that purpose, because when it comes to thrillers and similar narrative devices, there are better options.
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The Dive is a chamber German thriller. 1.5 hours, only 2 heroes and a terribly boring plot. The Dive is a unique thriller, you can literally fall asleep when watching it. It seems that the heroines have 20 minutes for everything, but there is no suspense in the film completely. The main characters are sisters, is there any emotional connection between them in the script? No. Is there any tension in the movie? No. I hoped for a European approach to shooting chamber films. But I got only a complete disappointment. Movies about underwater travel have recently been as trivial as possible, and The Dive only confirms this. If you don't want a good movie about divers, you'd better watch Sanctum or the classic The Abyss.
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Production Company
Augenschein Filmproduktion,
Falkun Films,
Logical Content Ventures,
Logical Pictures,
MFG Film,
Protagonist Pictures
Release Date Aug 25, 2023
Duration 1 h 31 m
Tagline Keine luft. Keine Zeit. Keine hoffnung. [No air. No time. No hope.]
Awards
German Film Awards
• 1 Nomination
