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HBO Max subscribers can now stream Open Water after the survival horror thriller started streaming on the platform on February 1st. The 2003 movie is based on the harrowing real-life story of Thomas and Eileen Lonergan, an American couple who in January 1998 were abandoned at sea during a scuba diving trip off Australia’s northeast coast and were never seen or heard from again aside from personal effects that later washed ashore. In the film, Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis take on the roles of Daniel Kintner and Susan Watkins, who become separated from their group scuba dive and find themselves stranded miles from shore in shark-filled waters.
Open Water’s Terror Lies in Its Believability
So much of what makes Open Water so terrifying is just how plausible it all seems. The movie is a quieter type of horror than Jaws that is grounded in the horror of a simple human error that results in a tragic, fatal situation. The movie trades the big-budget, action-heavy, bloody spectacle of most shark films for a story that is truly just man at the mercy of nature. Open Water reads like a raw, slow-motion panic attack that emphasizes the vast, empty, and indifferent nature of the ocean and the slow, agonizing realization that rescue is not coming, leaving viewers, just like Daniel and Susan, waiting for the inevitable.
