Thrash
As a hurricane batters South Carolina, a small coastal town is flooded and sea-faring predators go scouting for lunch…
Chucking it down: Alyla Browne, Dante Ubaldi and Stacy Clausen
Image courtesy of Netflix.
by JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
It’s hard to take Thrash seriously and yet one has the niggling feeling that the film is, in fact, deadly serious. One might take comfort, though, that the director, Norway’s Tommy Wirkola, previously brought us Violent Night, a Christmas parody that was equal parts horrific and hilarious. So, should you nestle down in front of Thrash for an evening of edge-of-your-seat thrills, maybe take it all with a pinch of salt, or at least salt water.
Jaws is obviously an influence but so is Alexandre Aja’s genuinely unnerving Crawl, which likewise combined a category 5 hurricane with creature discomforts. In the case of the former it was alligators in Florida and here it is sharks in South Carolina. Both films also feature English actresses grappling with American accents alongside the inclement weather and both of their characters ignore evacuation orders in the face of obvious Armageddon.
As the horrors of climate change are replaced in the headlines by the horrors of war, it is perhaps prudent for the occasional disaster pic to prompt us of what the future holds on the meteorological front. Last year’s The Lost Bus from Paul Greengrass was a terrific reminder of the power of the genre, as was Twisters. Here, we have a more slovenly episode in which plausibility is the least of its problems. The film opens with the statement, “Since 1980, the intensity, frequency and duration of Atlantic Hurricanes have increased 250%”.
A handful of characters from the township of Annieville, South Carolina, deftly deliver their respective backstories before Hurricane Henry unleashes its full rage on the small community. As the agoraphobic Dakota (Whitney Peake) peers out of her living room window she muses, “it’s just rain,” while nine-months-pregnant Lisa (Phoebe Dynevor) ignores orders to get the hell out of dodge and continues driving in the direction of the nearest hospital. There’s also the arrogant redneck Billy Olsen (Matt Nable) who boasts to his three foster kids that the windows of their house are protected by reinforced glass, windows that he himself installed. Obviously no good will come of him, nor of his precious windows.
As the storm rips roofs off buildings and uproots trees, a mandatory evacuation order is put into place moments before the ocean tears the town’s levee apart like shortcrust pastry, flooding the whole area. These early scenes of Nature’s wrath have a certain visceral appeal (CGI is so good these days), when a following series of ludicrous situations beggar belief. When nasty Billy Olsen is turned into shark chum in his own kitchen, little Will wonders out loud, “does this mean we have to get new foster parents?” An extended sequence involving Lisa and Dakota has no rooting in reality, not least that they are able to understand each other on opposite sides of the flooded street (hurricanes are actually very loud). When Dakota asks Lisa what they should do next, Lisa replies, “I’m from New York. I don’t know shit about floods or hurricanes.” It’s ironic, then, that New York suffered one of its worst cases of widespread flooding courtesy of Hurricane Henri (different spelling). Then Lisa, as her contractions increase, tells young Dakota, “you need to see how big my opening is.” Are we meant to laugh? Let’s just hope that the whole thing is intended to be a parody.
Cast: Phoebe Dynevor, Whitney Peak, Djimon Hounsou, Matt Nable, Andrew Lees, Alyla Browne, Stacy Clausen, Dante Ubaldi, Sami Afuni, Tyler Coppin.
Dir Tommy Wirkola, Pro Adam McKay, Kevin Messick and Tommy Wirkola, Screenplay Tommy Wirkola, Ph Matt Weston, Pro Des David Ingram, Ed Martin Stoltz, Music Dom Lewis and Daniel Futcher, Costumes Emily Seresin, Sound Peter Staubli, Dialect coach Natasha McNamara.
Sony Pictures/Hyperobject Industries-Netflix.
86 mins. USA. 2026. UK and US Rel: 10 April 2026. Cert. 15.
