Well, let’s put it bluntly: think a combination of Crawl and plenty of Jaws and Sharknado touches to make the latest Netflix feature, Thrash. The only difference is that you’re most likely to forget the Netflix motion picture the quickest once you move on to the next thing.
This writer admits that being eclectic is a fine opportunity in the world of cinema, if it sincerely expands upon the genre. Thrash rehashes what’s come before it, but seems disoriented from the get-go on what to expend its energy on. Writer/director Tommy Wirkola tosses out ideas and stylistics for the sake of it, making this a cluttered mess despite clocking in at “only” 86 minutes.
The plot follows several characters dealing with the oncoming of a Category 5 hurricane in Annieville. Dakota (Whitney Peak) is an agoraphobic individual, unable to leave her recently deceased mother’s two-story house. In the midst of the storm, she stumbles across Lisa (Phoebe Dynevor), who is pregnant and needs to utilize her Spotify soundtrack to keep her newborn at bay. On the other side of the town, we have a bunch of kids named Will (Dante Ubaldi), Ron (Stacy Clausen), and Dee (Alyla Browne) sitting at home with their foster parents. And then there is Dale (Djimon Hounsou), Dakota’s uncle and a marine researcher, who is heading out on a boat with a TV crew to rescue his niece. There are some other throwaway characters factored in, but you get the gist. Anyway, the main issue outside of the water flooding the town is that a pack of bull sharks is roaming the waters, devouring anyone they stumble across.
It’s a mayhem film with some tidbits of comedy and tension thrown in, yet none of it feels remotely interesting. The characters are given haphazardly miniature backstories for stay-at-home viewers to push past. A bunch of profanity with your foster parents doesn’t make us root for the trio of kids, aside from the fact that they’re youngsters. Lisa’s playlist is a dissonance; who listens to “A Thousand Miles” when surrounded by sharks and about to give birth? And finally, Djimon Hounsou’s character is simply an exposition machine, with little activity coming from his end. Also also, a great white named Nellie is introduced and then doesn’t make an impact until the climax. How redundant can that be in a film desperately in need of more dramatic output?
The other concurrent issue is the claustrophobia presented, which washes away whenever the characters find themselves in a more perilous scenario—stuck in a car that impaled a tree? No sense of urgency. What about the kids sitting atop the table tops at their house, looking for a way out? Not much to do until they can make fun of their foster parent father.
Wirkola seems to be grasping at straws, especially given that his background is more fluent in tongue-in-cheek moments rather than unsettling jolts. If you’re looking for a comedic film that does the whole “be concerned about this selection of people in dire circumstances” thing, maybe watching Joss Whedon’s Justice League might do the trick. However, it’s highly undesirable as a product overall. You’d be better off watching Alexandre Aja’s Crawl or going with the Spielberg classic if in dire need of some tension.
Thrash might’ve been more at home on Shark Week, “thrashing” away its existence despite being in an environment that would at least remain felicitous.
Thrash is available to watch on Netflix.
