Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Director: Tommy Wirkola
Running Time: 84 minutes
Star Rating: 🌟1/2
Description
Thrash (2026) is another shark film that imagines what might happen if bull sharks were to swim into cities during catastrophic storm surges. Lisa, a pregnant woman who has recently been left by her fiancé, is stuck in Annieville when she is forced to go to work despite evacuation warnings.
When a fallen tree traps her in her car with waters rapidly rising, she must rely on other people who have become stuck in place. However, there are complications. Big, brash, bull shark style complications. The group, including agoraphobic Dakota, her marine biologist uncle Dale and a group of foster children must traverse the trials and tribulations of climate change and their new friends in the water.
Will the group survive or will it be a bull shark bloodbath?
Review
Shark films have really gone off in a direction of their own and Thrash (2026) is the abysmal result. There are many reviews accusing the crew of using ChatGPT to write this film. This reflects the limited creativity involved in its production. Rather than new ideas that take the genre into alternative directions, we have your usual ‘oh no, sharks are here now for some reason’ plot and subpar acting.
Phoebe Dynevor was flying high following her Bridgerton (2020) debut but choosing projects like Thrash surely cannot be helping her portfolio. Although her story is emotional, her one-dimensional acting and dodgy American accent strip it of any and all feeling outside second-hand embarrassment. Whitney Peak’s performance was better but speaking from a former agoraphobe, I can’t say the portrayal of the condition was particularly accurate (in my case).
For a shark film, there was hardly any shark screen time. Occasionally we’d see a fin slice through the water and a pool of blood emerge. My favourite part was when Billy Olsen’s butt cheek is bitten off before he ends up unintentionally sacrificing himself to save the foster children he has made miserable for their entire time together. Furthermore, Dale introduces us to Nellie, the Great White, but her relevance to the story isn’t really discussed. It seems she’s there to wrap things up neatly at the end so our protagonists don’t get chomped in half.
The ending is a large part of the problem with this film. The pacing throughout isn’t perfect but it’s acceptable until the ending. Within the last fifteen or so minutes, we’ve got a newborn baby, Dale conveniently arriving with the boat and Nellie having a light snack of bull shark. It feels way too rushed.
I do get the feeling that the creators were intentionally messing with us. That birth playlist for example? I fear listening to A Thousand Miles while giving birth is punishable by shark. Even the title seems to be parodying itself – the title of this post was only too easy for me to come up with. Is the film one big satire or did we just witness another shark film failure?
Recommendation or Regret
I have to say, I was having fun with the film for a good while. The plot was unrealistic, the acting was goofy and the runtime passed quickly without me realising. But, can I say it was a good film? Absolutely not.
Although I don’t necessarily regret watching it myself, I can’t recommend it in good faith. We’ve seen shark film after shark film now. I think it’s time to expand into films about different creatures. What about a film about barnacles? That would be much grosser, in my opinion.
Ready to read about another 2026 release? Check out the review for adventure thriller, Apex.
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