Dead Sea (2024)

"Kaya" (Isabel Gravitt) and her diving pals "Tessa" (Genneya Walton) and "Xander" (Koa Tom) find themselves stuck out at sea with two of them quite badly injured. Would you believe it, a boat is sailing nearby and the skipper spots them floating away with his binoculars and goes to the rescue. He's a curious sort of chap who doesn't seem remotely interested in his new charges, indeed he leaves the poor lad splayed on the deck! Next thing, both the girls are in the cargo hold and he (Alex Wraith) has arranged a rendezvous with a physician who has an altogether more sinister intention than they'd hoped for. It turns out these folks have swam into the midst of a people smuggling ring, and they are now $5k per head commodities - dead or alive. It's going to have to be up to the inventive "Kaya" to escape and see if she can call for help. Though pretty far-fetched, the story is quite tensely directed for about half an hour as a rather deadly little dimly lit cat and mouse game is played, but the acting is all pretty shocking, matched by some fairly banal dialogue and just a little too much serendipity. That said, though, it's nowhere near as bad as I was expecting when I saw the opening scenes and for a while towards the end it's decently menacing before things flare up nicely. You'll never remember it afterwards, indeed you might actually forget bits of it while you're watching it - but it's not the worst.