PLOT: Friends embark on a dream vacation of parties and diving, but their trip takes a terrifying turn when criminals attack them at sea.
REVIEW: 2026 has been the year of the shark movie, and the bar has been considerably low. I’m not sure why it’s so difficult to just give us some sharks killing people in a fun way, but the focus always seems to be in the wrong place. Above & Below attempts to change up the formula a bit, with the threats of the criminals on the surface and the sharks in the water. It’s not safe anywhere. Add in Antonio Banderas as a charismatic crime boss, and this manages to do what so many other shark films this year have not: actually be fun.
Above & Below follows a group of friends as they head out on a shark diving excursion. Unfortunately for them, they’re sharing the boat with a group of criminals, who aren’t too happy when their crimes are discovered. Now, they’re being forced to retrieve something for the criminals in the shark-infested waters. It’s a simple premise that feels like a mish-mash of several films we’ve seen before, but that’s okay: the main point is that we’re getting sharks attacking people. Mostly.
Oddly enough, what works here is how stupid the characters are. I was constantly laughing at the awful decisions they were making. The acting rides the line of being bad but is never so awful that it’s cringey. Though the underwater dialogue was clearly ADR’d, the actor’s performances don’t really match between the booth and the scene. They give Laura Marano‘s Tatiana enough agency, but it results in her looking extremely ignorant and lucky rather than actually skilled. But that’s where so much of my enjoyment came from: watching these people do stupid things and pay the consequences. They never seem to understand the severity of their situation.
It’s so weird to go from seeing Antonio Banderas in Tony to then seeing him here, but that’s just the life of an actor. Banderas seems to be having a blast as Burns, and his distorted criminal perspective provides a lot of the humor. He has a twisted perspective and logic that makes him appropriately unpredictable. It really made me want him in more villainous roles, and he’s easily the best part of the film. Louis Mandylor makes for the perfect unhinged henchman, bringing just the right amount of sleaziness and danger. It’s really the bad guys that make this a more entertaining time.
Any shark movie rides and dies on its FX, and Above & Below is fairly competent in that regard. In fact, I’d say these are the best Shark FX we’ve gotten in quite some time. They make sure to hide it amongst the darkness of the ocean. While I do wish they had had a practical element, the sharks aren’t interacting with the cast enough for that to be completely necessary. And I liked that they didn’t act entirely sentient and seemed mostly food-motivated. Hilariously, more people die due to gunshots than by shark attacks. The ones we do get are very quick and not overly bloody. Though there are some pretty nasty aftermaths of ripped apart bodies.
One of my chief complaints about so many shark movies these days is that they don’t know how to have fun. They end up taking themselves too seriously. Above & Below embraces the silliness, with even the characters not understanding the gravity of their situation. At one point, one of the girl’s is freaking out about sharks outside the cage potentially getting in, and gets talked down by someone who’s literally free swimming outside of it. Unfortunately, there’s nothing outright scary here, despite the sharks actually being handled well. The tension is cut by the fact that the characters aren’t worth rooting for. This is most certainly a “cheer when this person dies” type of film.
Sadly, Above & Below features far too little actual shark action. They are merely treated as obstacles versus the main threat of the film. Even the characters don’t seem to treat them with the same level of urgency that they do the criminals up top. I’m conflicted because this was just the right level of campy but I needed more shark action. This isn’t a great film, but it’s the kind of B-movie entertainment I want from my ocean monster cinema.
Above & Below is now playing in theaters!