Fear Below Review: Murky Water, Murder, and Misfits with Money Problems
Fear Below mixes Aussie crime grit with underwater horror. Read the full review of this indie shark attack movie, where Sea Dogs meet murky deaths.
Fear Below
Director: Matthew Holmes
Date Created: 2025-05-02 11:28
3
Pros
- Claustrophobic diving gear + orange-tinted underwater POV, Some sharp shark kills and solid practical effects, Jacob Junior Nayinggul brings quiet depth
Cons
- Tonally inconsistent, crime drama one minute, shark schlock the next, Fisherman subplot is cringe and expendable, Final act loses steam.
Film Reviewed: Fear Below
Director: Matthew Holmes
Genre: Indie Survival / Shark Horror / Aussie Crime
Where to Watch: Check the streaming options at the end of the review
Date Watched: 8th July 2025
Reviewed by: Mother of Movies [Vanessa Stewart]
- Studios: Odin’s Eye Entertainment, Bronte Pictures, Two Tone Pictures.
- Distributors: Well Go USA Entertainment, Signature Entertainment, Saban Films.
The Setup
Sharks. So many shark movies, so little time.
And yet, here we are again, diving headfirst into Fear Below, a grimy Aussie horror that throws a crew of fleeing criminals, an ex-Navy dive team, and a very hangry shark into a muddy river and lets the chaos unfold.
The film’s own byline uses the phrase “rag-tag crew,” which is already a warning shot, but look, I support indie Ozploitation and creature features wherever they bubble up. So Fear Below had been on my radar for a while, and I finally got the chance to sink into it. And while it’s not exactly swimming in new ideas, there’s still bite in this one.
From Roadmap to River Blood
The story opens in chaos, literally. A group of thieves, clearly fresh off a heist, attempts to navigate out of the backroads using an actual paper map (and you thought mobile phones were bad) when their driver veers off-course and plows the car straight into a river. It’s a jarring moment, fast and stupid in the best crime-movie way. For his efforts, the driver gets yanked under by something unseen, and it’s not a gentle exit. The first death is messy, dark, and completely avoidable. Classic horror rule: if you’re in a crime movie and near a body of water, don’t be the first idiot in.
Enter: The Sea Dogs
With their cash sinking and no way to recover the loot themselves, Boss Man (Arthur Angel) seeks out an old contact: Ernie, a rough-around-the-edges local with ties to a dive crew. And what do you know, he just so happens to know three ex-Navy types who can dive, salvage, and fix problems underwater… for a price.
The Sea Dogs are introduced with just the right amount of grimy charm, Clara, the competent military woman who speaks the Queen’s English but lives the Aussie survivalist life; Jimmy, Indigenous, quiet, observant, and absolutely the heart of the film; and Ernie himself, who drinks like it’s a second job and pilots the whole operation with duct tape and half a conscience.
They know it’s a shady job. They don’t ask questions. But the money? That’ll buy them freedom, a boat, maybe a second chance.
“Stronger than a Womba”
Quote from the Aussie horror, Fear Below
The Water Gets Murky (and Bloody)
As the team dives, the film leans heavily on atmosphere. The vintage diving suits are a smart touch, clunky, claustrophobic, and completely unnerving. Orange-tinted underwater shots flicker between first-person perspective and helmet-cam views. There’s radio communication, breathing sounds, bubbles; it’s immersive and effective.
And then, the shark shows up.
Clara is the first to go, yanked into the river after her oxygen line gets ripped. The sighting is brief, obscured, and all the better for it. Less CGI, more suggestion. It works.
Back on land, the Sea Dogs regroup. There’s a quick crash course on bull sharks (correct: they’re aggressive, territorial, and yes, live in rivers). But Boss Man isn’t having any delays. He hires a so-called “expert fisherman” to deal with it. Spoiler: the man is neither an expert nor prepared. His bait is wrong, his attitude worse, and when he pulls a gun, you just know it’s going south.
Guess what? It does.
Tension, Teeth, and Things That Don’t Land
What works is the setup, the practical effects, the shark psychology, the creeping unease. The Sea Dogs have great chemistry, even if Ernie spends half his screen time half-drunk while controlling the air supply. (One scene has him sipping whiskey while managing a diver’s oxygen hose. Yes, really.)
What doesn’t? Tone control. The film swings from brooding indie noir to pulpy fish-flick theatrics. Boss Man threatening to kill his own team for slow progress? Tense. Fisherman pulling out a rifle like he’s shark hunting in a cartoon? Not so much.
The third act stumbles, too. One solid kill aside, the pacing loses bite. We get long scenes of yelling, Jimmy getting smacked around, and less shark than we were promised.
Final Thoughts
Fear Below is messy, murky, and more ambitious than most indie survival flicks. It’s not the next Rogue, but it doesn’t have to be. It aims to be a gritty, low-budget mix of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and 47 Meters Down, and for about 65% of the runtime, it works.
It also gives space to Indigenous identity, without reducing Jimmy to a trope, which earns points, even when the script gets clumsy with the rest.
It’s not perfect.
But if you like your shark horror with moral ambiguity, rusty dive suits, and criminals too dumb to realise they’re outmatched by nature?
Yeah, give it a go.
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Spoiler Free Trailer for Fear Below
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