Thrash is a 2026 shark-horror/survival-thriller film written and directed by Tommy Wirkola and starring Phoebe Dynevor, Whitney Peak, and Djimon Hounsou. I have been seeing this pop up in my suggested movies on Netflix since it came out a little while back and I figured I’d watch it at some point. I’ve seen a lot of the shark-based kind of horror movies. From Jaws, to 47 Meters Down, to Dangerous Animals, to even Sharknado just for the fun of it. I enjoy a good shark thriller from time to time when I’m feeling it, and now that it’s that summertime feeling outside and the heat is starting to kick back up in the area, it felt like the perfect time to try this one out. Thrash has been getting well, thrashed online (*ba-dum-tss*) by most critics and audience scores on most movie reviewing sites but that doesn’t usually stop me if I’m truly wanting to check something out. So, was this film actually bad, or are people giving it too much grief? Let’s talk about it!
I’ll just start by saying this isn’t necessarily a good film in the classic sense of the word, but I did have a pretty fun time with it still. The characters are real one note with simple motivations and very clear obstacles that they were going to have to conquer. You have the really pregnant lady whose man walked out on her, the shut-in girl with extreme anxiety after losing her mom, and the foster kids with terrible foster parents who don’t look out for them. It’s very obvious who the good and bad are in this movie and what the “good guys” are going to have to face and overcome along the way as the story plays out. That’s pretty much what I mean when I say the characters and really even the story itself is decently one note. I think that’s generally fine though for a disaster like film like this. You’re not getting to learn too much about the backstory of these characters because you’re spending time with them in a disaster situation that they have to overcome rather than their normal life. All that said though, this movie did take some leaps at times and some of the outcomes to situations were cheesily obvious as well. Originally this was a Sony Pictures property and they shot the thing and decided not to release it or distribute it and were likely going to trash it if it wasn’t bought, but Netflix said one man’s trash is another man’s treasure and distributed it on their streaming service anyways.
That fact in itself was enough to raise my eyebrows and make me question the quality of this movie before I ever saw it. It’s usually not a good sign when a studio just decides to scrap a film they already spent money on and shot. All this trash talk aside though, I still think this movie was worthy of being distributed and at least put on a streaming platform if nothing else. I’m glad it wasn’t trashed. It was simple and it isn’t going to be winning any awards or anything, but it was an easy watch that gave some fun and cheap thrills with sharks. A category-5 hurricane rolls into a coastal Carolina town, and they place an evacuation order so most everyone up and leaves town at the beginning of the film. Besides a few that is, and that’s who we end up spending our time with. The concrete dam at the coast ends up breaking from the choppy waves coming in from the storm and in rolls a giant flood of water that envelops the town and brings in schools of bull sharks. That’s pretty much the general basis and all you need to know for the entirety of the movie in order to buy in. That’s if you choose to do so. Think ‘Crawl’ from a few years back, but bull sharks instead of crocodiles.
Shout out to Phoebe Dynevor though who played the really pregnant lady in this film. Even if the situations they put her in and the character herself was predictable and ridiculous, she still truly acted her ass off and did all she could with the role and the material she was given. Stand out performance of the movie for me easily. This is certainly no ‘Jaws’ and not close to ‘Dangerous Animals’ from last year even, but it’s not as ridiculous or cheesy as say a ‘Sharknado’ either. Although, Sharknado set out to be ridiculous and cheesy and this movie really did try to take itself seriously, so I guess there is something to be said for that as well. Thrash still brought what I wanted from it though for the most part. A 90ish minute shark thriller that doesn’t ask for too much brain power out of you, but still delivers some shark knowledge while tossing in some cheap, bloody shark bite kill scenes as well. It’s streaming now on Netflix, so if you feel like shutting your brain off for 90 minutes on one of these hot summer nights and watching some one-note characters get munched on by bull sharks then give this a watch.
That’ll do it for this one though folks! Thank you for taking out the time to check this out, it’s appreciated. Make sure to like the page on social media or come back to the website often to keep up with all my latest posts over horror films (old & new), newly released movies, pro wrestling, and more! Until next time though, be good to one another.
