Whalefall is a survival thriller that takes a nightmarish premise and turns it into a story about grief, family trauma and the desperate will to survive. Directed by Brian Duffield and starring Austin Abrams (Euphoria, Weapons, Resident Evil) and Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men, Sicario, Dune), the film combines claustrophobic underwater horror with a troubled father-and-son relationship.
Based on Daniel Kraus’s 2023 novel of the same name, the story follows Jay Gardiner (Austin Abrams), a young scuba diver struggling to come to terms with the death of his father, Mitt (Josh Brolin). Mitt was an experienced diver and a formidable presence in Jay’s life, but theirs was far from a loving relationship. Haunted by their troubled past, Jay returns to the waters off the California coast in an attempt to recover his father’s remains. What begins as a deeply personal mission quickly becomes a fight for survival when Jay is swallowed by a massive sperm whale.
Trapped inside the whale with his oxygen supply running dangerously low, Jay must find a way out before time runs out. Facing the terrifying prospect of being crushed, suffocated or digested alive, he is forced to draw upon everything he knows about diving and the ocean if he is to stand any chance of making it out alive.
The film also stars Elisabeth Shue (The Karate Kid, Back to the Future Part II) as Jay’s mother, Zara, with Jane Levy (Evil Dead, Don’t Breathe) and Emily Rudd (Fear Street, One Piece) playing his sisters, Eva and Nan, while John Ortiz (American Gangster, Silver Linings Playbook) appears as Hewey. Although the central survival story largely rests on Abrams’ shoulders, the family relationships give the film an emotional dimension that goes beyond its grisly premise.
On a personal level, Whalefall is as much a family drama as it is a survival thriller. Jay is a young man with serious daddy issues, desperate to prove he is more than the person his father believed him to be. The film begins with Mitt’s death and is partly told through flashbacks, which reveal the troubled relationship between father and son while providing some breathing space from the horrors unfolding inside the whale. These memories add emotional depth to Jay’s fight for survival, as he struggles with the legacy of a father whose approval he spent much of his life seeking.
Kraus co-wrote the screenplay with Duffield, and the film retains the novel’s central premise and themes. Although the transition to screen inevitably changes how Jay’s thoughts and memories are presented, the core story remains recognisable, with the adaptation placing particular emphasis on the visual horror of his ordeal.
You will need a strong stomach to watch Whalefall, and even then, you will more than likely spend much of it watching through your fingers, unless you are tempted to turn away altogether. It has some genuinely scary moments and is more frightening than 95 per cent of the horror movies that have filled cinemas over the last few years. There are shades of Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours in its desperate fight for survival, although Whalefall takes things into considerably more grotesque territory.
The film is not perfect, and the pacing can drag, particularly during the stretches inside the whale, when the tension occasionally loses momentum. It is also more than a little ridiculous at times, with certain moments stretching credibility to breaking point. I couldn’t help wondering, for instance, whether anyone has ever thought of using a jellyfish as a torch. It’s the sort of question Whalefall might leave you pondering, even as you’re watching through your fingers.
Nevertheless, it delivers enough claustrophobia, suspense and stomach-churning horror to make its flaws forgivable. One thing is certain: Whalefall is a hell of a scare.