Directed by Phillip Noyce

Written by Terry Hayes

Based on the 1963 novel Dead Calm by Charles Williams

Starring Nicole Kidman, Sam Neill, Billy Zane, and Benji (the dog)

By trapping us out on the ocean and offering up three stars who are all on their A-game, this thriller whips up such a deeply claustrophobic atmosphere for me to sink my teeth into. There are so many moments where this will let us sit in a space that isn’t using Graeme Revell’s synthesizer-fueled score (by the way, this was his first film score) and that relies on a quieter environment in which we can hear noises like the wooden creaking of a boat and the soft laps of the water surrounding it. These beats aim for a superficially tranquil mood that hovers right above a pulsating vein of tension, often leaving me in a spot where I have to wonder when that tension will burst into a louder form. And hey, when Revell’s score does kick in, it still adds onto the suspense, especially during the bits and pieces where it includes the operatic singing and the heavy breathing—the latter being evocative of the score for Don’t Worry Darling. It’s these sorts of extra touches that take what could have been a perfectly adequate ocean thriller and elevate it to a whole ‘nother level under Phillip Noyce’s direction. It knows how to roll out the pacing and amp up the fear factor while the cinematography from Dean Semler and Geoff Burton captures the setting in all of its beauty. It’s a gorgeous and sparkling place to explore out here in these waters, but oh dear, that doesn’t stop me from experiencing some terror as the walls close in on this cat-and-mouse game that Hughie is dragging Rae and John into. Kudos to Nicole Kidman (who was merely around twenty years old while shooting Dead Calm), pre-Jurassic Park Sam Neill (who was 39 at the time of filming, making for a significant age gap between himself and Kidman, which… Of course that’s happening in Hollywood), and pre-Titanic Billy Zane for their ability to amplify the thrills in their own ways. Kidman and Neill don’t even get to share a lot of screentime together, but the movie still succeeds at creating a connection between them that gets me rooting for their reunion. It’s great to watch Kidman, who’s able to use her Australian accent, deploy a palpable grit that fleshes out Rae as she’s forced to deal with her captor and tries her best to outmaneuver him. As for Zane, he plays up Hughie as a malevolent moherfucker who constantly attempts to slide by with a sleazy brand of charisma. There’s a specific beat where he’s dancing along to “Who Stole the Isopropyl Alcohol” by Tim O’Connor, and it lands as a pleasantly campy gag in a movie that keeps me locked up in suspense most of the time. Material like Hughie’s comments on Rae’s facial bone structure further increase the creepiness of this antagonist.

Now, I wouldn’t say this film is perfect. For example, it kicks things off with such an effectively horrifying opening, but then… I’m not feeling much of the impact from that resonating throughout the rest of the tale. I want to dig deeper into the psychological and emotional trauma that Rae and John have to reckon with in the wake of this tragedy, but instead, the movie focuses on other elements and leaves the beginning to dangle off the side as merely a piece of shlock. Then we have Hughie’s outrageously evil characterization, which presents him as a villain who’s seemingly spawned out of nowhere, like he came from some paranormal plane of reality. On the one hand, I sort of like how this lets him radiate a mysterious air and pushes him forward as the kind of monster who’ll do anything wicked purely because he can. On the other hand, it forces me to suspend my disbelief over this character, and I end up getting frustrated in regard to the question marks that I’ve got circling around my head. There’s quite a bit that we don’t know about where he came from and about the other people on his boat, and I’d actually be intrigued by a whole movie covering what truly happened with that group. Sure, I can imagine these details for myself, but I’d be more satisfied with knowing what led up to this point and what motivated Hughie to behave in this vicious fashion (the 1963 Charles Williams book that this is based on does offer up this information).

As for the ending, I can understand why it bothers some other viewers, but I have a hoot with it. I’d been considering a few potential conclusions that this movie might go for, and I would have been fulfilled with any of them. That being said, there’s one idea that I sincerely thought this would have the gumption to carry out for a bit. It ultimately doesn’t do that, and I can see this alternative ending being too pessimistic for the film. But still, I would have embraced it. What the movie does wrap up with is something that the studio had inserted because they weren’t happy with the original ending. If we’d gotten that ending, I think it would have been excellent, allowing an eeriness to linger over me. But instead, this finishes things off in a manner that has me dropping my jaw thanks to a beat of over-the-top violence. This memorable conclusion isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it works well for me.

All in all, Dead Calm has turned out to be a surprise hit in my book. I mean, I’d been hoping it would be good, but I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it this thoroughly. Apparently, there was originally going to be a shark scene—one of multiple sequences that George Miller had directed (it fits that Semler and Terry Hayes did the cinematography and script, respectively, considering they had both worked on Mad Max 2 and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome). But oops, that shark terror got excised from the final product. Now we can wonder what it would have been like for that to be included. And on a side note, looking for movies with a similar vibe to Dead Calm has brought me to a couple picks. We have Bitter Moon, which I’ve come across before, but I haven’t checked it out yet because it’s directed by pedophile Roman Polanski. Then there’s Knife in the Water, which also intrigues me, but… oh joy, it’s yet another Polanski film. Hmm. We’ll see about those choices.

Final rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars