OCTOBER 20, 2026
GENRE: PREDATOR, SURVIVAL
SOURCE: THEATRICAL (REGULAR SCREENING)
When I first heard the plot of Whalefall, I wasn't even sure how it would fill a short film runtime, let alone a feature. Then I heard it was based on a novel, and I was even more confused. "Surely there is more to it than this?" I said aloud, prompting the person next to me to change seats. But anyway, I eventually learned that it's only half the story - the other half is devoted to flashbacks about how our hero Jay (Austin Abrams, who can't catch a cinematic break) learned the skills he will need to survive from his hardass, emotionally abusive father. Dad stuff AND what amounts to a body horror story but where it's the poor whale with something going wrong (accidentally swallowing a human that's still alive, in this case)? Hell yeah, sign me up! (I also bought the book a few days later for good measure.)
Unfortunately few other ticket buyers seemed to agree, and it's probably not even playing in any theaters near you by the time you read this, because it's October and I take forever to write and even longer to post something. With Resident Evil doing so well, I thought Abrams' appearance and the wacky plot would entice more people to show up, but alas - as of this writing it hasn't even managed to top the woeful box office totals for The Dog Stars, which was one of the year's biggest flops. That little bit of trivia has gotta sting for poor Josh Brolin, an actor everyone seems to like but outside of his Marvel stuff rarely seems to find himself in financially successful movies. He plays the dad, and he is as great as always, but your mileage will vary with these scenes depending on whether or not you have your own conflicting relationship with your own dead dad (raises hand), because.... all due respect to Mr. Brolin, but we are here to see a dude inside of a whale.
As for HOW Jay gets inside the whale, it's fairly plausible (I guess; I mean I have little experience with the digestive systems of whales): he's deep sea diving and accidentally gets tangled within the tentacles of a large squid that is about to become whale dinner. After an incredibly tense sequence where the squid (already going down the whale's throat) is dragging him along and he's thisclose to escaping-a remarkable feat for director Brian Duffield since we know Jay can't escape being that it's the plot of the movie, yet you never stop hoping he will somehow get out of his predicament-he ultimately goes down along with the fish, relying only on his oxygen tank to keep him breathing and the things his dad taught him to know how he can possibly get out. Naturally I won't say whether or not he makes it, but I can say that he goes through pure hell along the way, with more gnarly injuries than I've seen in a PG-13 film in quite some time.
It's also claustrophobic as hell. This is not an issue I have myself, but I started feeling that way during a few key scenes, with his cramped "living quarters" and the constant tossing and turning (in mostly darkness to boot) giving me an uneasy feeling that I assume will be pure hell for those who already have trouble with elevators and such. The set or whatever they used for the interior is a disgusting marvel to behold; constantly pulsing while squishing our poor hero who naturally has no idea what is happening outside to cause the whale to be doing what it's doing. And you end up feeling a bit bad for the whale, too - I don't think it's a spoiler to say that Jay eventually uses a knife to keep a grip on his surroundings before sinking deeper into its system, and I would have to assume having a living thing essentially wandering around inside you (at least babies stay fairly still!) would not be pleasant. Granted a whale is massive, but I would estimate it'd be like a mouse or something running around inside the human body - probably wouldn't feel that good, right? So you're rooting for Jay, obviously, but it doesn't take long to start worrying that he's going to have to kill the innocent beast in order to escape it.
I also enjoyed seeing one of these things on the big screen again. I missed Fall 2 last month, but honestly I didn't make too much of an effort, given that I didn't love the first. And yet, I will always be a sucker for these "What would you do?" survival thrillers, and in this case it was a ridiculous scenario that was presented as seriously as possible, which I quite admired. And as an added bonus, at no point could I say "Oh you idiot, just [do that]!" because A. I can't even swim, so I'd never be in this situation to begin with, unlike some others (Frozen's ski lift, Quicksand's forest setting, etc.), and B. his options are so limited that he was doing things I never would have thought of anyway, again because I have zero knowledge of this activity. So when you add in the dad stuff, which again might not be for everyone but hit me directly in my psyche (there's a scene where Brolin is angered his son wants to go hang out with his friends instead of engaging in a sport with his dad; the specifics changed, but definitely lived through that myself), I was truly kind of stunned at how fully engrossed I was in this movie that I thought I'd be kind of laughing my way through, given the absurd premise.
Plus Jane Levy showed up a few times as Jay's sister! That's always another plus. And Jay's mom / Brolin's widow is played by Elizabeth Shue, giving us a Hollow Man reunion in the rare occasions we see them together. Cinema! Hopefully people find this one on streaming and the like; it's a solid thriller and a reminder that no idea is too silly to make for a good movie as long as everyone is committed to doing it right.
What say you?
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