Thrash comes pre packaged. If you’re into these sort of trash disaster movies, there’s no less than 9 million other choices on the streamers. But if I could entice you: they’re easy going, stupidly understandable delights, usually with some stellar insane setpiece somewhere near the ending. They’ve also got a Bridgerton star at the center for some Netflix cross-marketing for the women stuck watching this on a date night.
Thrash starts as most of these movies do: small town South Carolina is about to be hit by a category 5 hurricane. Most people leave, so who’s stuck there? The very pregnant woman (Phoebe Dynevor) forced to work, an agoraphobic girl (Whitney Peak) traumatized by the death of her mother, the badass marine biologist (Djimon Hounsou) looking out for everyone, and 3 orphaned siblings (Stacy Clausen, Alyla Browne, Dante Ubaldi) raised by cruel foster parents (Matt Nable, Amy Mathews). The hurricane these people might have probably handled ok…but when the levees break and flood the town, that’s now new routes for say, bull sharks to chase down the meat runoff a burst food production truck unleashed in the center square.
Yes, this movie at times gets to the level of silly you want it to. But frankly, director Tommy Wirkola might want to rewatch more Alexandre Aja or Roland Emmerich movies. Those two are the kings of the B movie disaster flick; there’s an elegance and stupid brilliance about the story construction that helps keep people engaged before the big stuff happens. Like say, a girls gone wild producer shooting a mermaid porno during a spring break with piranha attacks? Despite the brisk running time, Thrash’s middle section sags. There should be a few really scary sequences of claustrophobia or fear before the heavy action third act, but the attempts they have are poorly executed, sucking any tension from the story for the sake of speed. Character development isn’t a large consideration in these films, but at least the random groups of people introduced in the middle usually intersect with each other in the build to the climax like in an Aja movie. In Thrash, the poor foster kids are clearly filler necessary to pad 20 minutes to make the movie a reasonable length, off on their own mini adventure. And Djimon Hounsou looks the part, but doesn’t get to do anything interesting as he works his way back to town.
But none of this matters if the action sequences work at all, cause that’s what Thrash will be remembered for. I was a little worried at the early shark attacks because of the ugly CGI and quick cutting they didn’t have the budget for. Thankfully, the final 20 minutes of mayhem are where they spent all their money, good choice. Sharks attack and get taken out in all sorts of ways, big and small. Tommy Wirkola has clearly never met a woman with his understanding of childbirth, but that lack of realism actually helps Thrash get hella silly in a way the movie should have been from the get go. The music choices work, the mini dumb teases at the beginning get their big payoffs here. And the big final attack has a conclusion I didn’t expect but was very glad I got.
So on the whole, good try director man. Hopefully Thrash is a hit, and you can go write your next disaster flick with a bigger budget, Tommy boy. Maybe write the sequel to Under Paris? Go under Mallorca or Ibiza, during a British holiday. Then we can bring Jerry O’Connell back!