‘Thrash’ (2026) Netflix Movie Review - A Moderately Entertaining Survival Thriller

The special effects in Tommy Wirkola's Thrash are so convincing that you sit up in your seat when the water starts rising and when the sharks come into close contact with the people on screen. I admit I experienced a nervous chill down my spine when a shark swam between Dakota's (Whitney Peak) legs and when another shark came very close to biting off Ron's (Stacy Clausen) feet. Dakota is an agoraphobic who has lost both her parents and is now under the care of her uncle, Dale (Djimon Hounsou), a marine biologist. Ron, on the other hand, is the older brother of his foster siblings, Dee (Alyla Browne) and Will (Dante Ubaldi). Even before the hurricane, these foster children were living in a horror movie, thanks to their strict, greedy foster parents, who adopted them only for the money. And let's not forget Lisa (Phoebe Dynevor), a pregnant woman who becomes trapped in her car while trying to leave the coastal town of Annieville.

The Category 5 hurricane, Hurricane Henry, traps all the characters in their homes as they struggle against both the severe weather and the apex predators it brings. Wirkola is at his best when the characters are baiting, fighting, and being devoured by the hunters of the sea. During these moments, his survival thriller is effectively scary. At times, the tension rises so high that you can't help but start giggling. You grin at your own reaction, and you grin at Wirkola's staging (a baby is delivered in the flooded street). As good as Wirkola is with the horror elements of his film, he is equally poor with exposition and comedy. When the children watch two characters being eaten alive by sharks, Will asks, "Does this mean we have to get new foster parents?" The line is likely intended as a joke, but it arrives so abruptly after the graphic visuals that it leaves you uncertain whether you should actually laugh or scoff at Will. Later, when the kids chant "Fuck Mr. Olson," and Mr. Olson makes his appearance, you again don't laugh but instead question the logic of the moment. How did Mr. Olson escape the clutches of the hungry predators?

But Thrash's lowest point arrives when Dale explains why he became a shark expert. The dialogue is so clumsily inserted that it becomes painfully obvious that Wirkola is simply trying to fill a gap in the story. Wirkola is no expert at writing characters. Thankfully, he knows how to deliver scares, and this single strength is enough to render the survival thriller moderately entertaining. The great white is sufficiently intimidating; that's all one needs from a movie like this.

Final Score- [5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times