THE REEF BLOG

Some of my thinking behind the movie.

The production of this film is guided by three principles:

Suspense and Psychological Horror
The main principal of good horror and suspense is that the audience’s imagination is a much more potent tool than special effects and “monster” shots. In other words the best way to build fear and dread is by focussing on small events and leaving “space” for the audience’s imagination to run wild. Like Jaws, Alien and all good horror-thrillers, The Reef will generate suspense and tension by holding back the presence of the “monster” and focussing on the fears of the main characters.

Realism

Rather than being heavily theatrical, The Reef will be written as realistic as possible, sticking to its simple and raw premise without being burdened with artificial themes. I want the audience to feel this true event. I want them to think, imagine if this happened to me, what would I do?

Characters

We want to make sure that the four main characters in this tale are all real characters with natural vulnerabilities that the audience can and will empathise with them.

Stay tuned for more blog posts.

Welcome to The Reef Movie Website

I have always wanted to make a movie in Australia about sharks. There is something quite compelling about the concept.

Sharks and shark attacks are a huge part of Australian culture and how the rest of the world perceives us. It’s not uncommon to hear of friends or relatives that arrive from overseas but are too scared to enter the ocean because they believe they’ll be taken by a shark. Mention sharks at a party and everyone will have a story or a take on them.

The animal is synonymous with this country and yet we’ve never made a feature film about them. The American’s took one of our true stories and turned it into a very successful film called Open Water. For Jaws they came to Australia to get their shark footage but here in Australia we’ve never made a feature film about one of our most notorious cultural ambassadors. Like most films in this genre, The Reef is designed to frighten and scare to cause dread and alarm, to invoke our worst hidden fears, in this case a fear heavily imprinted in our genes, the fear of being eaten alive by a vicious, unreasoning predator.

I hope you come with us on the journey and keep in touch by coming back to my blog as often as you like.