Summary
Throughout the years,the intimidating vastness of the ocean has captivated filmmakers and audiences alike. Its mystery and the creatures it holds (both fictional and real) help it serve as one of the most terrifying and suspenseful settings for some ofthe best thriller moviesever released.
These ever-present bodies of water help audiences explore from thebest action moviesto the worst claustrophobic nightmares.Shark attacks, pirating, or even psychologically-filled encountersall happen within the best thrillers that take place on the ocean.
10 Most Underrated Psychological Thrillers From The 2010s
The 2010s was an excellent time for psychological thrillers, and many incredible releases have fallen under the radar and deserve more attention.
Dead Calm
Cast
Dead Calm is a thriller directed by Phillip Noyce, starring Nicole Kidman, Sam Neill, and Billy Zane. The film follows a couple on a yacht trip who encounter a stranger and becomes embroiled in a tense struggle for survival on the open sea. As the suspense intensifies, they must navigate psychological and physical challenges to protect themselves.
After the tragic passing of their son, John and Rae Ingram decide to spend some time alone at sea. It is important to note the morphing role the ocean plays. It changes from being a therapeutic experience to becoming a threat when the characters become stranded.The vulnerability the ocean pulls out from them is truly amusing to see, and strange things happen when they save a stranger on a sinking schooner, making it even better.
Nicole Kidman took sailing lessons before the filming ofDead Calm. She actually piloted the yacht during the final storm scenes.
This isolated ship film works perfectly as it’s a three-person-cast film. Nicole Kidman, Sam Neil, and Billy Zane’s acting is remarkable inDead Calm. The two boats depicted do make the film, as well as its very original setting.Seeing the ocean’s roar sinking the schooneralmost completely by the end has to go down as one of the best scenes in the genre.
Sea Fever
Sea Fever, directed by Neasa Hardiman, is a sci-fi thriller set aboard an Irish fishing trawler where a marine biology student, played by Hermione Corfield, encounters a mysterious parasitic infection. The crew’s struggle for survival tests their resilience and underscores the tension between scientific inquiry and instinctive fear.
Despite its small budget,Sea Fevernarrates the events of fishers marooned in the sea. The problem?They have a parasite growing in their last bit of drinking water supply.It is way beyond just another basic, horrific film.
The setting for this film is extremely calculated. Water itself ends up playing a magnitude of important roles. From the vastness shown by the ship surrounded by miles of ocean water to the small visual elements showing how the contaminated water is infecting all the crew.The contrast generated between the fishers quarantining but also being trapped under the Irish ocean adds another layer of claustrophobia.Sea Fevercreates an unsettling atmosphere while also showing the power and menace that water has.
Sphere
A spacecraft is discovered on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, presumed to be at least 300 years old and of alien origin. A crack team of scientists and experts is assembled and taken to the Habitat, a state-of-the-art underwater living environment, to investigate.
Based on Michael Crichton’s book,Sphereexplores a very defined set of characters uncovering a more than 300-year-abandoned ship. Often overseen compared to some ofSamuel L. Jackson’s best movies,Spheredoes manage to shine a light on his character Dr. Harry Adams and his more cautious counterpart, Dr. Norman Goodman.
While the majority of films like to portray the ocean as this tremendous force,Sphereuses it as a representation of the unknown. This is one of the rare instances where we can see that the characters' descent into the ocean mirrors their descent into the unknown. At the same time, it also represents the psychological challenges they start to face. Scenes like them being underwater and talking to Jerry, an “alien”, leaves viewers feeling claustrophobic and endangered like the characters themselves.
7Below (2002)
Trapped Together
Documenting the fictional incident of a crew in the Atlantic Ocean in 1943,Belowshows the mysterious happenings in a confined space. While the movie does contain jump scenes,its true terror lies in the way the producers cleverly combined two genres.This atmospheric ghost thriller mixes the concept of an underwater US Army submarine setting with a lot of historical context and an underlying ghost story.
InBelow,it appears as if the USS Tiger Shark goes through the typical submarine movie problems. However, the cinematography used to reflect on the movie is what makes it special.The twists of the movie mixed with the cast never ending paranoiamake it remarkable even to this day.
Captain Phillips
Starring Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips tells the story of the titular captain whose cargo ship was hijacked by Somali pirates in 2009. A fictionalized version of real-life events, the film follows Captain Phillips and his crew as they fight for their lives against a group of Somali pirates led by Abduwali Muse. Besides Hanks, Barkhad Abdi and Catherine Keener also star.
Grossing more than$200 million against a budget of $55 million,Captain Phillipsis one of the best movies set in the ocean. While it may not be one ofTom Hanks' most underrated movies, it still does not get the recognition it deserves.Captain Phillips, yet again, proves director Greengrass’s thrillers are like no other.
Based on a true story surrounding the events of the 2009 MV Maersk’s hijacking,Captain Phillipsmakes viewers experience the despair and desperation of being trapped in the middle of the oceanwith no hope of rescue. The Somali crew, while not being widely recognized actors, stole the show. They made the movie so immersive that it was easy for viewers to forget it was just a movie.
Triangle
This psychological thriller follows a group of friends stranded on a yacht in the Bermuda Triangle, where they board a passing ship only to experience terrifying temporal distortions and duplications of themselves.
Filled with fantasy, survival, and sci-fi moments,Triangleis an ocean-based film where a group of friends ends up on a yacht in the middle of the ever-scary western part of the North Atlantic Ocean. While the Bermuda Triangle itself is surrounded by urban legends and just an overall mystic aura, the movie does take this to its advantage.What seems at first like a typical slasher, blooms into a mind-bending mystery.Triangleis simply a rewarding experience.
Towards the end,it is evident that the ocean played a bigger role than just being intimidating like in other movies.It acts as a catalyst for the time loop and the strange events the characters go through. The ocean itself is what adds suspense in the film, both as an atmospheric element but also as a plot device.
4The Old Man And The Sea (1958)
Just A Fisherman In The Ocean
Often forgotten by most,The Old Man and the Seais a movie whose focal point is just that: an old Cuban strayed for days, alone, on a boat. While at first, the premise can’t sound like much, the lack of other locations helps the audience concentrate more on the details and symbolism behind it.
In the originalThe Old Man and the Seabook, the ocean is supposed to embody life and the individual’s role in it, and directors John Struges and Fred Zinnemann delivered exactly that. While not as thriller-y as other ocean-based features,The Old Man and the Seais not short of impactful moments. The wide shots of the never-ending ocean, the zooms into Santiago’s hopeful face, and the panned-out views of the man alone on his boat, let the audience feel the vastness and isolation. However, moments like Santiago trying to catch the giant marlin make all the experience worth it.
The Abyss
The Abyss is James Cameron’s fourth feature film and his second water-themed movie. Starring Ed Harris, Michael Biehn, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, the 1989 drama that revolves around a team of oil workers and Navy SEALs who face a mysterious alien race at the bottom of the ocean.
Winning the 1990 Oscar for Best Visual Effects,The Abyssis a movie that features one of thebest special effects in a James Cameron movie. Unlike many other sea adventure thrillers, it has a sci-if element added and this can be remarked by how they cleverly played along with the concept of water itself.
In its first clips, the water is illustrated as something eerie, yet beautiful. This is a more character-driven film, and it can be observed that the deeper they got, so did the ocean’s appearance. The scenes with water-manipulating aliens are what ultimately takes the cake. The images of the seawater tentacle converting into a face are timeless. Scenes like when the humans are reasoning with an alien under the water are still thought about even 35 years later.
8 Best Thriller TV Shows Of 2024
The thriller genre improves with each passing year, and throughout 2024, several highly anticipated thriller TV shows are scheduled for release.
The Poseidon Adventure
The Poseidon Adventure is a disaster film directed by Ronald Neame. It follows a group of passengers as they struggle for survival after their luxury cruise ship capsizes in the open sea. Starring Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, and Shelley Winters, the film showcases their desperate journey to safety amidst perilous conditions. The Poseidon Adventure is based on Paul Gallico’s novel and emphasizes themes of bravery and human resilience.
The Poseidon Adventuretells the story of a cruise ship that gets knocked over in the ocean. The movie’s approach is more disaster-adventure.The ocean here is not seen as boundless or even mysterious like in other films, but as a wild, turbulent force in the form of a tsunami.Being released in 1972, they did not count on a lot of the visual effects or the virtual imagery that’s available nowadays, so the fact that they could record that enormous wall of water so naturally makes it all the more astonishing.
The Poseidon Adventurewas shot sequentially, capturing the actors' increasing injuries authentically.
The film opens with a tidal wave claiming hundreds of the passengers' lives, proving just how merciless it is. The few remaining people are trying to survive on the scraps of what the ship once was, is depressing. The attention to detail in scenes like the gigantic wave being seen through binoculars, the once-lively corridors flooding, and the ballroom getting flooded with water show how even the grandest of ships can be reduced to a mere shell of its former self in seconds.
Jaws
Jaws, directed by Steven Spielberg, follows the residents of Amity Island as they face terror from a menacing great white shark. The town’s police chief, a marine biologist, and a seasoned shark hunter join forces to track and kill the predator threatening their coastal community. Released in 1975.
Despite being released almost 50 years ago,Jawsstill holds up to this day as one of Steven Spielberg’s best movies with themost iconic moments. Even with its dated technology,the images captured of the endless, intimidating ocean that holds these ferocious creatures still roam through people’s minds, even after so long. Its tension-packed scenes, like when Brody is feeding the fish and a massive shark’s head suddenly appears beside him, became historical in the genre.
The 1979 TV broadcast ofJawsincluded extended scenes, such as a shark-hunting frenzy and additional dialogue that most people don’t know about.
Being the first movie ever to gross more than one hundred million dollars, Jaws showed the general audience how terrifying the ocean as the setting can be. While the first half of the movie takes place on land, focusing more on fearmongering, the second half is an adventure in the depths of the ocean. Opening with scenes like Chrissie getting eaten, this movie is simply hypnotic, yet suspenseful from the start.
