The long, somewhat turbulent road to Tommy Wirkola’s disaster flick/shark thriller Thrash doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence. Shot back in 2024 under the title Beneath the Storm, it was set to be a blockbuster release by Sony Pictures. Those plans were derailed and it was moved to the following year, with a new title, Shiver. Ultimately, the film landed at Netflix with no theatrical release at all, and under the current title which, honestly, I still don’t think they got right. But if all of this sounds like the makings of a doomed project, trust in Wirkola, the filmmaker because gory genre flicks such as Dead Snow and Violent Night, to deliver the mindless, elevated camp full of blood, guts, and razor sharp teeth that fans are looking for.
Thrash is basically a better version of the ridiculous, poorly-acted Sharknado movies. Except here, the actors are Phoebe Dynevor, Whitney Peak, and Djimon Hounsou, y’know, exceptional talents and not Tara Reid. They not only bring genuine emotion to an unfathomable situation, a category 5 hurricane along with a shark feeding frenzy, but when the situation calls for them to scream, cuss, and assert the obvious, they play along. I mean, what is there to say when you’re a pregnant lady about to pop, and you’re trapped in a car surrounded by sharks with rising flood waters up to your neck other than “Fucking shit!!”
Written and directed by Wirkola, Thrash is produced by Adam McKay. McKay, whose name is plastered on the side of a doomed meat truck, recently directed the star-studded disaster comedy Don’t Look Up, about a comet set to destroy civilization…and humanity is too stupid to pay attention. There’s a similar theme here, as well, because as the opening words tell us, there’s been a serious uptick in the power and frequency of hurricanes recently. And obviously, climate change is the cause of all of this and we’re too busy with our own shit to notice or care.
In this case, the fictional town that’s under threat of Hurricane Henry (so strong it could be a category 6) is Annieville, South Carolina. Prior to the storm’s landfall, it looks like a place that would be a perfect fit for a Nicolas Sparks or Colleen Hoover movie. It’s here that we meet Lisa (Dynevor), who was called in to work on a day when the weather service is telling everyone to get the Hell out of town before the hurricane hits. She’s nine months pregnant and abandoned by the kid’s jerkwad father, but Lisa has the perfect birthing playlist all ready to go on her phone. Lisa’s mother wants her to consider having a water birth…and, well, she just might get that.
There’s also a trio of rambunctious Olsen siblings, Dee, Ron, and Will (Alyla Brown, Leviticus breakout Stacy Clausen, and Dante Ubaldi), who have a pair of neglectful foster parents so awful they can’t even be counted on to be fed everyday, much less be protected by a natural disaster.
Finally, Hounsou is marine researcher and shark expert Dale Edwards, whose niece Dakota, played by Peak, is agoraphobic since the death of her parents. Dale can’t figure out why the coming storm has sparked so much shark activity, and even caught the attention of a massive Great White that he’s been tracking. The answer is kind of hilarious, and ties into those frequent mentionings of McKay.
For a good stretch of Thrash, it doesn’t exactly feel like a Wirkola movie. If you’re accustomed to his grisly, over-the-top style of genre flick, it can seem a bit tame. There are lulls in the shark feeding frenzy, especially when the story diverts to Dale’s slow race home to rescue Dakota. But things eventually pick up as limbs start being devoured; “He got my fucking arm!!” one victim shouts, fairly obviously. Dakota becomes Lisa’s last hope for survival and must brave the outdoors, and the risk of becoming a human buffet. The Olsen kids are trapped in a flooded home teeming with sharks, but they also have a pair of foster parents who are only looking out for themselves. Thrash becomes a crowd-pleaser about people coming together to help one another out when disaster strikes. If only the sharks were a bit more menacing and a more constant threat. The biggest danger is Mother Nature herself, as the relentless storm threatens to not just wash away our heroes, but the entire town itself. Shot on a soundstage mostly in Australia, Thrash is impressively scaled-up, with so much flooding it looks like you just wandered onto the set of Waterworld.
Thrash cranks it up a notch in the final stretch as the Wirkola we expected lets it rip with wild underwater births, taser guns, loads of dynamite, and an earful of Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles”. If there’s going to be a sequel, and since bad weather is forever that’s a distinct possibility, here’s hoping there are even more sharks thrown into the mix. And maybe a few crocs? Or would that be too much like Crawl? Whatever the case, Thrash delivers just enough shark-on-human action, in under 90-minutes no less, that it should be like chum in the water for those in need of a quick fix to watch at home.
Thrash is streaming now on Netflix.
