The Reef

Sharks are scary. Almost the perfect movie villains. There's no dialogue to worry about, no fiendish plan to come up with, and all they have to do is threaten to be there and our imagination will take care of the rest. Director Andrew Traucki understands this well. Loosely inspired by true events, The Reef tells the story of five friends sailing off the Australian coast when their boat suddenly capsizes.

Faced with a slow death waiting for help which might never arrive, they unwisely decide to take their chances and swim for land. Traucki sticks to essentials: the characters struggle against rising panic and their own helplessness while a great white shark stalks them and picks them off one by one. Almost as effective as when it isn't there, when the shark does appear, a combination of real footage and CGI make its attacks almost unbearably realistic and disturbing. The simple back-to-basics approach makes for a nerve shreddingly tense experience. [Scotty McKellar]