Image Credit: Netflix
From Sony/Columbia Pictures and producer Adam McKay (menu, fresh), Thrash is the latest film from Norwegian writer/director Tommy Mirkola, whose penchant for ultra-violent action thrillers has been well-established since his breakout Nazi zombie film Dead Snow in 2009. Since then he has created brutal and brutal creations such as Hansel and. Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013), Netflix Original what happened on monday (2017), Travel (2021), and the holiday home invasion crime thriller violent night (2022) starring stranger things David Harbor as a fantastic version of Santa. Mircola will also direct the Violent Night sequel coming later this year.
While he has notably dabbled in a number of genres, Mirkola will now set his sights on the growing business of creature feature disaster films. Netflix had a recent international hit in 2024 with the French shark thriller Under Paris, a film that spent 21 weeks in Netflix’s Global Top 10 that summer, earning nearly 110 million completed views. with spankingBoth Netflix and Mircola will be hoping for similar success, especially this time with 2 stars from major Netflix projects.
characteristic of bridgerton Starring Phoebe Dynevor and Rebel Moon franchise standout Djimon Hounsou, the story centers around the citizens of a small coastal town in South Carolina, where an aggressive and devastating Category 5 hurricane brings torrential rain, flooding, debris, and darkness to the area. Citizens like Dakota (“Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” co-star Whitney Peak), a young woman struggling with panic attacks upon leaving her home after recently losing her mother, or Lisa (Dynevor), a pregnant woman recently dumped by her fiancé to pursue a career in professional poker and DJing (OOF!), are stuck battling a massive storm and the chaos that ensues. However, amidst the devastation, those left behind must also face something they never expected: the arrival of a hungry horde of bull sharks into the city when the embankment walls are destroyed.
If a Cat 5 hurricane causes massive flooding in a coastal American city, leading to the rise of aggressively predatory predators in the area, you might be wondering about the 2019 Alexandre Aja natural disaster survival thriller Crawl; A film that boasted the tagline: If storms don’t catch you, they will. The “they” in that film were a group of crocodiles huddling around a young woman and her father as floodwaters rose around them in their family home.
Although both of these films have a similar basic outline of plot construction, the main thing that differentiates them, and ultimately makes only one of them successful, is that only one of them had enough character and emotion to make the emergence of horrific creatures significant. Unfortunately for Miracola, Netflix, and possibly you, that “one” isn’t our shark-infested thriller.
Thrash has many of the elements characteristic of successful underwater creatures, but it doesn’t commit to or execute any of them convincingly. It has some comedic parts (for example, the deadbeat foster dad turns on the country music radio in his truck as he eats), but it’s not as silly as Sharknado or the dark encampment of Lake Placid. It has some violent attacks, but it’s not as scary or intense as Jaws or Crawl. It has some touch of scientific underpinning or environmental concern, but it doesn’t come across as a particularly smart film or a politically charged film. The worst part is that they have 3 separate stories, multiple characters with no real leads, and no chemistry between any of them to be relatable.
It may seem strange, but most creature features don’t rely on the creature to be the best part of their movie. This is what the characters have to lose and why we care about what ultimately makes these movies work. Thrash doesn’t give anyone here enough time or backstory to make them interesting or compelling enough to care.
Beating. Whitney Peak as Dakota in Thrash. Ten million. Netflix © 2026.
The film stars Phoebe Dynevor’s Lisa and Whitney Peak’s Dakota as real-life characters who are paired after being rescued from a car accident in floodwaters. A daring rescue, a dangerous situation, trauma bonding – this has to be the building blocks of the best relationships in film; However, Dakota is described as so paralyzed with anxiety that she cannot hold a conversation and Lisa is so overwhelmed by the prospect of the impending birth that they exchange only exposition and basic tactics. Even during the aforementioned heroic rescue, in which Dakota puts his life on the line to save Lisa from drowning, Lisa only says “Okay” when she is rescued from being trapped in a flooded car and doesn’t say thank you until they get back to the house. No hugs, no emotion, barely any gratitude. Nothing.
The positives here lie only in the appreciation of shark violence and survival techniques. Do you want a lesson in distracting sharks and imitating injured fish? You got this! You want people’s arms to be cut off? Found that too! Just don’t demand a character with personality.
If your barrier to entry is that you enjoyed Under Paris but don’t want to have to read subtitles, then maybe, at 90 minutes, you’ll have enough time to get from thrash to Shark Week this summer. But if you want it to be compared to the more acclaimed films of the disaster horror microgenre, you’ll want to look for a higher tier.
Beating. (L-R) Djimon Hounsou as Dr. Dale Edwards and Whitney Peak as Dakota in Thrash. Ten million. Ben King/Netflix © 2026.
Watch spanking if you liked
- crawl
- under paris
- deep Blue Sea
- what happened on monday
MVP of spanking
Phoebe Dynevor as Lisa
As noted in the review, none of the characters get any real chance for backstory or personality; But if anyone could get any acceptance, it would be someone who has given birth while drowning and getting attacked by sharks, right? And also the one who has the best line in the movie:
“Mom’s here! Mom just has to fight some sharks!”
I Really Enjoyed Dynevor in Netflix’s Post-Me Too Finance Thriller fair play From 2023, and I attribute his success beyond this film.
Verdict: Lower your expectations if you want to enjoy a shark-infested survival movie like Below Sea Level. Famous actors mean nothing if you don’t give them something to work with, but violent shark attacks might be enough to satisfy bloodthirsty fans of the genre.
