Flying is already scary enough for most people without Hollywood trying to put snakes on a plane. Yet, that hasn’t stopped filmmakers from upping the ante with sharks on a plane in the upcoming survival horror film, No Way Up.
We know this was clearly a missed opportunity to call this film ‘Sharks on a Plane’, but don’t let the somewhat cheeky premise fool you. No Way Down seems to play on some of the biggest human fears, making it a legitimate horror experience, complete with teeth, thrills, and chills.
The two-and-a-half-minute trailer opens up with a group of friends boarding a plane, excited about the trip they’re about to embark on. However, their journey gets cut short when their plane crashes into the Pacific Ocean. In a stroke of more bad luck, the survivors realize that they’re now surrounded by water, trapped in an airlock with no reception, and facing the threat of hungry sharks that have begun to circle the wreckage.
Produced by the same team behind 47 Meters Down, which, surprise, surprise, also had sharks as the big bad villains, No Way Up will have audiences thinking twice about their next flight, especially if it happens to be over the Pacific Ocean. The simple fact that it’s rated R for “language and bloody/grisly images” means viewers can expect an edge-of-the-seat, nail-biting 90-minute thriller that takes the shark attack genre to new depths (pun intended).
Leading the cast is veteran actor Colm Meaney, who will be joined by an ensemble of lesser-known actors, including Sophie McIntosh, Phyllis Logan, Grace Nettle, and Will Attenborough. Swiss filmmaker Claudio Fäh will take the helm as director, working with a script penned by Andy Mayson.
Shark attack films have been a staple sub-genre for animal horror films for years, ever since Jaws, the father of shark attack films, became a mega blockbuster hit. Sadly, the 1975 Steven Spielberg film led to a spike in shark trophy hunting, contributing to a significant decrease in large shark populations in North American waters. In fact, Jaws is allegedly part of the reason why humans kill sharks more than they kill humans.
So, will No Way Up exacerbate our deep-rooted fear of sharks, or will it turn out to be just another run-of-the-mill shark film that rips off other films that have come before it? We’ll find out when it swims into theaters on February 16.
