Whalefall review

WHALEFALL: 

FIRST POSSESSED KIDS, THEN ZOMBIES, AND NOW A GIANT WHALE, AUSTIN ABRAMS HAS THE WORST LUCK! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

20^TH CENTURY STUDIOS

Austin Abrams screaming for help in Whalefall.

 

            In the tradition of Austin Abrams (The Kings of Summer, Weapons, Resident Evil (2026)) having the absolute worst luck ever, he gets eaten by a giant whale in Whalefall, the new film from writer-director Brian Duffield (The Divergent Series: Insurgent, Spontaneous, No One Will Save You) and producer Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment, based on the novel of the same name by Daniel Kraus, who also co-wrote the screenplay alongside Duffield. The trailer definitely got my attention when I first saw it; Whalefall looked freaking terrifying and, in some ways, even more so than Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, surprisingly. 

            Honestly, I think I’d rather get mauled to death by a shark than eaten alive by a whale and slowly dying,g especially after seeing this film. Granted, I don’t think Whalefall is on par with Jaws, and I do have some issues with its structure and pacing, but I was on the edge of my seat a lot during my viewing. 

             The film follows college student Jay Gardiner (Abrams) returning home to California following the death of his estranged father and scuba diver, Mitt (Josh Brolin-Marvel Cinematic Universe, Dune trilogy, Weapons). Jay dives off the central Coast of California in search of his father’s remains, only to find himself trapped inside a whale with only one hour of oxygen left,t upon realizing the hard-earned scuba lessons from his father may be crucial for his survival and escape. 

            The film also stars Elizabeth Shue (The Karate Kid, Adventures in Babysitting, Back to the Future: Parts II and III) as Jay’s mother Zara, John Ortiz (American Gangster, Fast & Furious, Kong: Skull Island) as Hewey, and Jane Levy (Suburgatory, Evil Dead (2013), Don’t Breathe) and Emily Rudd (Fear Street, One Piece (2023)) as Jay’s sisters Eva and Nan. 

            Overall, Whalefall is a very suspenseful and riveting journey inside of a whale that you could almost call the 127 Hours of whale movies, es except nowhere near as grisly (Granted, this film is rated PG-13, but there are some gnarly sequences). I say that because the majority of the movie takes place in one location; in 127 Hours' case, it was trapped between a boulder and a slot canyon,n and in this film’s case, it’s inside a whale’s stomach, ch with much of the character development being told via flashbacks. 

            I’ve never read the book (Didn’t even realize it was a book until I saw it in the credits), so I don’t know how faithful this movie is, but while a lot of the flashbacks between Abrams and Brolin are emotionally powerful and show the skills the former will eventually use inside the whale to escape, some of them are flat-out unnecessary to the point where the film gets silly in the last act. The movie started to lose me in the climax even though I was still invested in what was happening; it’s mostly because of one thing the film does with Brolin that felt awkward to me and didn’t match the rest of the movie. 

            With that said, if you’re claustrophobic or have a fear of being eaten alive by a large animal, this shit is frightening. The scene where Abrams gets eaten by the whale is intense, and seeing him slowly try to get out gets your blood pumping as you’re watching; that was all awesome and more than worth seeing on the big screen. 

            Like I said, the flashbacks kind of overstay their welcome, but Josh Brolin is amazing as the estranged father, a far better supporting role than in The Dog Stars a couple months ago. He just owns every scene that he’s in and gives the majority of the film’s drama, especially in the earlier half of the movie. 

            Austin Abrams gives an endearing performance as Jay, the man stuck in the whale,e though I will admit, I don’t think it’s nearly as memorable as his roles in Weapons or the new Resident Evil. I felt like those movies did a better job of getting me wrapped up in his character from the get-go, whereas all the investment and emotional levity here comes from flashbacks; still, I gave a shit about him and wanted to see him escape from the whale. 

            The CGI is damn impressive, especially the scene where the whale gobbles Abrams up, and the sound design is stellar (People bitched about Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday not being released in IMAX when actually, this movie deserved an IMAX release all along). The whale sounds blast through the movie theater speakers, rs and so does this sequence where the whale uses some sort of sonar blast to fend off an orca attack;ck, absolutely worth seeing on the big screen with amazing sound quality. 

            Whalefall isn’t exactly the 127 Hours or Jaws of whale movies, but it’s a compelling and scary adventure about survival with strong performances by Austin Abrams and especially Josh Brolin. Dive on in and get eaten yourself.