Killer Whale, 2026.
Directed by Jo-Anne Brechin.
Starring Virginia Gardner, Melanie Jarnson, Mitchell Hope, Isaac Crawley, and Scott James George.
SYNOPSIS:
Follows best friends Maddie and Trish as they find themselves trapped in a remote lagoon with the dangerous killer whale named Ceto.
Typically, it’s only the human characters who are trapped in the oversaturated sub-genre of bloodthirsty sea creature features. In Killer Whale, co-writer/director Jo-Anne Brechin (alongside Katharine McPhee) attempts to alter that formulaic situation by, for starters, having the characters attacked by an Orca whale rather than a shark. The real kicker is that this whale had been a tourist attraction at whatever Thailand’s equivalent of Sea World is, performing tricks during shows for over a decade, until it grew old and tired, now discarded and sent off into an isolated body of water, also feeling trapped. It’s also worth noting that these particular whales only attack humans when they feel that way.
Virginia Gardner’s Maddie, who ends up stranded with her childhood best friend, Trish (Mel Jarnson), a social media influencer dabbling to pay the bills while possessing some scientific intelligence, and surrounded by the whale named Ceto, is also trapped in more ways than one. Part of the reason Trish has footed the bill for this entire overdue vacation is that Maddie shut down following a traumatic incident where she saw her boyfriend killed right before her eyes. Having once had ambitions to play cello professionally, she no longer does, nor does much of anything. She and Trish have talked about taking this vacation for the longest time, primarily because Maddie is fascinated by Ceto and would love to see it, though he has reservations about how these animals are treated.
If this sounds like a lot of setup for what is still a fairly generic ocean survival flick, that’s because it is, with much of that tragedy making up a good portion of the first act. Meanwhile, the animal activism approach, which is a solid concept in that the knowledgeable Maddie empathizes with the creature trying to kill her and Trish, also comes across as an afterthought, given that this film is more about the friendship and how that, too, has been in flux since the previously mentioned tragic incident.
It is also confounding that, in using the standard metaphor for this type of film, that survival and escape will awaken a revitalized passion for life, doing so will inevitably require fighting back and harming a creature she has admired for years, somewhat pushing back against that activism.
Perhaps it also sounds like too much law is being put into this, but since the focus is mainly on the friendship and these tweaked genre dynamics, the body count isn’t exactly high. If anything, Killer Whale takes itself too seriously at times and is more concerned with testing this stressed friendship. It might have worked if what was going on hadn’t been clichéd and predictable.
This is all without talking about how Maddie and Trish end up in this isolated spot to begin with, which, ridiculously, comes down to taking a jet ski ride with a hot man handing out brochures who also opposes the public observing these creatures in confinement. The budget is also so limited that it doesn’t even appear as if many others are vacationing in the area.
Everything there is to appreciate here mostly comes down to a concept that misses opportunities to truly separate itself from the genre. Killer Whale doesn’t work as an entertaining creature feature or as a character study of grief and trauma.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder
