by SARAH ROWLAND

More than a few critics have summarized Open Water as The Blair Witch Project meets Jaws. True, there are some surface similarities: this latest lost-at-sea thriller, which uses real sharks in docu-style footage, and the 1999 wicca-in-the-woods experiment are both micro-budget underdogs that were noisily swept up at Sundance. And, of course, Spielberg's '75 blockbuster is an automatic reference point when it comes to movies about lethal underwater carnivores. Although flattered to have his film mentioned in the same sentence with such groundbreaking successes, director Chris Kentis is somewhat uneasy with the comparisons.

"I'm a little concerned because it's actually nothing like either of those films," he says on the phone from his Toronto hotel room. "We never set out to make a shark film and we never set out to make a horror film and I don't believe that we have."

He does admit, however, that his movie taps into some primal fears. Based on true events, Open Water is about a vacationing couple who find themselves accidentally abandoned in shark-infested waters during a deep-sea diving tour.

"Obviously it must be scary because everyone keeps telling us it is," he says of his second feature. By "us" he means himself and his wife Laurie Lau, also the film's producer. "If we were going to tell the story we wanted to tell, then certainly those elements would have to be there. But the love story is more important to us because it was about recapturing what we felt when we first heard about the original story."

In deep trouble

Considering he and Lau are both certified recreational divers, the tragedy of two victims getting left behind because of a bad head-count was horrifying.

"I had a real strong emotional response," he says. "I found it incredibly upsetting. I was really shocked it could happen. You can't help but think, ‘What was it like out there? If it was me, what would I do?' So we constantly wanted to pose questions throughout the story."

But in this fictionalized re-telling, Kentis also explores interior issues in the lives of his onscreen couple. The two actors may be unreasonably good looking, but they capture perfectly the regrets and emotional awakenings that rise to the surface as surely as the more literal monsters that lurk in bottomless oceans. Prior to the expedition, in the luxury of their hotel room, Susan (Blanchard Ryan) is too stressed about her job to fuck and Daniel (Daniel Travis) is irritated by the way Susan hogs the sink when she brushes her teeth. Even when they first emerge from their dive and realize they're in deep trouble, Susan cycles through the blame game and the old silent treatment before realizing the futility of such domestic contests. The film is at its most intense when Susan's eventual heroism reveals something even more terrifying than the sight of hungry, circling sharks: seeing how much people take each other for granted.

"I think it's the way we all are," says Kentis, who admits that he can get caught up in the rat race of living in New York. "It's not an indictment on Blanchard's character. It's just kind of the bent of society."

Drowning in debt

In keeping with the spirit of filming and funding their own small-scale experimental project, Kentis and Lau were loyal to their cast even in the face of some costly surprises.

For one thing, actress Ryan neglected to admit to casting agents that she is deathly afraid of sharks. But the buxom blonde who, like her co-star went without pay, could only hide her phobia from Kentis for so long.

"She started getting quiet as the weeks got closer to filming and when she got in the boat, she was real quiet," he recalls. "It wasn't until she had to jump in the water and was crying that it became completely clear."

Ryan was able to continue working with the help of shark wranglers and metal mesh armour, and all went swimmingly until her co-star broke his knee playing volleyball.

Kentis was resolute about maintaining the intimacy of the original leads, with whom so much chemistry had already developed, and put the bulk of shooting on hold for a year while Travis recovered. "We were grateful that he was okay," he sighs, adding, "but I don't think I rushed to send him flowers the next day."

Open Water opens Friday, Aug. 20

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