Above & Below (2026)

Above & Below is the kind of lean, mean survival ride that remembers what makes a good shark-thriller work: not just teeth and blood, but the tightening vise of suspense when the ocean becomes a wide-open trap. Jesse V. Johnson keeps the pace brisk and the tension tactile, balancing sunlit vacation vibes with a creeping dread that turns every splash into a question mark, and the result is consistently entertaining in that white-knuckle, “don’t look away” way. What really sells it is how grounded the danger feels—especially in the attacks, which aim for a more realistic jolt than the genre’s usual cartoonish excess—while the criminal threat adds a grim, human edge to the panic. If you’re allergic to harsh intensity or don’t enjoy horror-tinged thrillers, this may be too relentless, but if you want adrenaline, fear, and a satisfyingly nasty time at sea, it delivers.

Above & Below is clearly aiming for a sun-soaked “vacation-from-hell” ride, mixing party energy, underwater peril, and open-water crime into a single pressure-cooker thriller. The problem is it feels like a patchwork of better survival and hostage-at-sea movies, and by piling on multiple threats it can start to feel noisy rather than tense. When the logic gets wobbly and the pacing drifts, the scares and action don’t always land with the sustained adrenaline the premise promises. If you’re happy to coast on familiar genre beats and a few solid moments of panic, you might get some mileage here, but if you need fresh ideas, tight plotting, and escalating excitement, this may test your patience.