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It’s time for a new episode of the Wtf Really Happened to This Horror Movie? video series, and in this one we’re looking at the tragic true events that inspired the 2003 shark thriller Open Water (watch it Here). To find out all about it, check out the video embedded above.

Wtf Really Happened to This Horror Movie? is sort of a spin-off from our show Wtf Happened to This Horror Movie. Wtf Really Happened to This Horror Movie? dives into movies that were based on or “inspired by” true stories, real people, and actual historical events so we can try to separate fact from fiction.

Written and directed by Chris Kentis, Open Water has the following synopsis: Daniel and Susan embark on a tropical vacation with their scuba-diving certifications in tow. During a group dive, the two separate themselves from the others to dive a little deeper. An...

Top 100 horror movies of all time: Chicago Film Critics' choices (photo: Sigourney Weaver and Alien creature show us that life is less horrific if you don't hold grudges) See previous post: A look at the Chicago Film Critics Association's Scariest Movies Ever Made. Below is the list of the Chicago Film Critics's Top 100 Horror Movies of All Time, including their directors and key cast members. Note: this list was first published in October 2006. (See also: Fay Wray, Lee Patrick, and Mary Philbin among the "Top Ten Scream Queens.") 1. Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock; with Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam. 2. The Exorcist (1973) William Friedkin; with Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Jason Miller, Max von Sydow (and the voice of Mercedes McCambridge). 3. Halloween (1978) John Carpenter; with Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Tony Moran. 4. Alien (1979) Ridley Scott; with Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt. 5. Night of the Living Dead (1968) George A. Romero; with Marilyn Eastman,...

To celebrate the release of Retreat, in which Thandie Newton and Cillian Murphy unwisely try to patch up their failing marriage by spending time alone in the only cottage on a remote Scots island, here’s a guide to the movies’ worst holiday destinations compiled by film critic and author Kim Newman. These films tell you all the things you don’t see in the brochures.

And Soon the Darkness (1970)

Destination: Northern France | Holidaymakers: Pamela Franklin, Michele Dotrice | Major snag: Psycho Killer

This is a cautionary tale about the perils of venturing abroad, especially if you happen to be two English girls in short shorts who decide to go on a cycling tour of an area of France where several young women have mysteriously disappeared. It’s a slow burn of a movie, beginning with the petty discomforts – unfriendly guest-houses, leering locals, squabbles – of a shared trip, then escalating to cat-and-mouse with a maniac.

The 2000's—the decade of iPods, social networking websites and economic hardship—were an interesting decade for horror movies, to say the least. You either loved them, or you downright hated them. From remakes, re-imaginings, reboots, restarts and resets to foreign imports to a resurgence of low-grade schlock, the 2000's were not without gore for fans across the globe....

At the end of the 90s, horror movies were almost non-existent. They were doing nothing new—trying only to steal the fame that Scream harnessed in 1995. Theatres were flooded with neo-Slasher knockoffs, and mediocrity ran amok. If it weren’t for The Blair Witch Project and The Sixth Sense, the 90s would have drowned in a sea of its own plainness. Once the 90s ended and the new millennium began, horror slowly glided on the watered-down plotlines of the should-not-be-classics of I Know What You Did Last Summer and Urban Legend,...

Here's a rather interesting trailer for Nancy Meyers' latest comedy "It's Complicated," starring Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin, John Krasinski, Blanchard Ryan, Lake Bell and Rita Wilson. Here's the synopsis:

Jane (Streep) is the mother of three grown kids, owns a thriving Santa Barbara bakery/restaurant and has—after a decade of divorce—an amicable relationship with her ex-husband, attorney Jake (Baldwin).

But when Jane and Jake find themselves out of town for their son’s college graduation, things start to get complicated. An innocent meal together turns into the unimaginable—an affair. With Jake remarried to the much younger Agness (Lake Bell), Jane is now, of all things, the other woman.

Yeah, sounds pretty intriguing right? To be honest, it looks quite refreshing as well. Meyers' more recent credits include "The Holiday" and "Something's Gotta Give," and I enjoyed both of these flicks. "Complicated" opens Dec. 25, 2009.

Open Water, made by the husband-and-wife team of Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, raises the question of how harrowing an experience a movie can put its audience through and still stake a claim as entertainment. Of its 79 minutes, more than 60 feature two scuba divers, accidentally abandoned by their boat in the middle of the ocean, being menaced by sea creatures, physical ailments and their own mounting fears. Clearly, this one will divide viewers, but the vote here is that Open Water is an unpleasant experience.

After unnerving festivalgoers in the Hamptons and Park City, the movie opens Friday in major cities and rolls out nationally Aug. 20. If Lions Gate can capitalize on the fear factor, Open Water could develop a cult following. But it is hard to envision repeat viewings or any great number of people willing, even vicariously, to undergo the couple's ordeal.

Only a handful of movies have dealt with the plight of people stranded at sea. Most memorable are Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat, where the emphasis is on the relationships among the diverse characters in the boat; the climatic sequence in Steven Spielberg's Jaws; and more recently Dead Calm and Deep Blue Sea. Of these, Open Water is about as stripped down as you can get: no boat, no other people -- just the wide and hostile sea.

Daniel and Susan (Daniel Travis and Blanchard Ryan) are a stressed-out yuppie couple heading for an island holiday in an attempt to lessen the strain of workaholic lives. Several days into the vacation, they board a local dive boat for a 30- to 40-minute underwater excursion. Through careless head-counting by the operator, the boat takes off before they surface.

And so it begins. Tantalizingly, other boats are on the horizon but not close enough to offer easy rescue. Before they can make a decision which way to swim, a strong current makes it for them by pulling them further out to sea. Jellyfish sting, a shark swims by, a barracuda bites Susan and David suffers leg cramps. Then another shark investigates, David goes nuts, each blames the other for their predicament, and more sharks appear. The only comic relief comes when Susan screams, "I wanted to go skiing!"

Unlike, say, Jack London's classic existential story To Build a Fire, in which a man stranded in the wilderness confronts his own mortality, the film never develops any deeper meaning or moral. Things just go from bad to worse. Occasionally, the filmmakers cut back to shore to tease us with shots of people enjoying life and partying. There is something a wee bit sadistic in these interjections, however, which build not tension but frustration.

This is an accomplished film, demonstrating what a guerrilla crew of four people and two actors can pull off. The actors believably portray the stranded couple without resorting to histrionics. Without any visual effects or other gimmickry -- yes, those sharks are real -- the two filmmakers subtly heighten the terror as the seascape goes from lush and simmering to blood red.

The snippets of island songs and music work their way into the story subtly, underscoring the mood but not calling attention to themselves. The digital transfer is smooth so that Kentis and Lau's cinematography, both above and below the surface, all too convincingly locates us in a watery wilderness with no help in sight.

OPEN WATER

Lions Gate Films

Plunge Pictures

Credits:

Writer-director-editor: Chris Kentis

Producer: Laura Lau

Directors of photography: Chris Kentis, Laura Lau

Music: Graeme Revell

Cast:

Susan: Blanchard Ryan

Daniel: Daniel Travis

Seth: Saul Stein

Estelle: Estelle Lau

Davis: Michaeal E. Williamson

Linda: Christina Zenarro

Junior: John Charles

MPAA rating: R

Running time -- 79 minutes...