A recycled premise gets repurposed with Killer Whale. If you’ve seen 47 Meters Down or Lionsgate’s Fall, which also stars Killer Whale‘s Virginia Gardner, this straightforward aquatic thriller adheres to the exact same formula with very little in the way of deviations.
Stop me if you’ve heard this plot before: an inciting tragedy inspires a lifelong best friend to whisk away her grieving pal on an exciting excursion, only for it to horrifically go awry and trap them in place with harsh elements and an unforgiving Mother Nature.
Killer Whale swaps 47 Meters Down‘s sharks and Fall‘s vertigo-inducing tower for an orca, Ceto, one Gardner’s Maddie has a loose connection with before she finds herself trapped in a secluded lagoon with the animal, a seclusion that emulates captivity for the mistreated orca and triggers its aggression, and without food or water.
Jo-Anne Brechin, directing from a script co-written with Katharine E. McPhee, struggles with a prolonged first act that’s heavy on setup. It takes a while to even get to the survival thriller part of the plot, as Killer Whale bides its time establishing various threads that may never pan out. The friendship between Maddie and Trish (Mel Jarnson) takes utmost attention, establishing an easy rapport and chemistry that goes far in instilling rooting interest for their survival. Act One also makes a massive deal over Ceto’s heartbreaking predicament and years of mistreatment, but Brechin and McPhee’s script never explores that further beyond giving Maddie empty platitudes of empathy. Once the trio hits the open ocean and the survival thrills begin, Ceto’s largely forgotten in a movie that sets her up to be a fleshed-out main character.
Further compounding the handling of the film’s eponymous whale is its clear constraints; Ceto is a rough CG creation with almost cartoonishly adorable blue eyes. Blocking can also be rough and show the seams; some shots reveal lagoon depths far too shallow for even a shark, while others misplace the CG rocks’ location in a way that can make the action and blocking muddled. Blending shoddy green screen effects becomes a noticeable struggle throughout, too.
The flaws become too easy to detect once the exposition is in the rearview; Brechin maintains unwavering focus on the core friendship and their emotional fallout over injecting thrills. As Killer Whale quietly slips further into retread mode, setting Maddie down the exact same path as the heroines of 47 Meters Down and Fall, it also seems reluctant to put her or Ceto in any more duress. It becomes more of a grueling waiting game for Maddie to either rally or succumb to dehydration.
Gardner and Jarnson turn in natural performances that sell their friendship and their terror, if only the script deserved them. It’s a case of diminishing returns for the ongoing 47 Meters Down dupes, especially in their refusal to alter the formula or step off the beaten path in any way. Lionsgate now possesses two in its catalog, both starring Gardner. Brechin trades terror for empathy, making for a much gentler version of this familiar survival scenario, but the plot beats are identical all the same.
Killer Whale releases in theaters, Digital, and VOD on January 16, 2026.
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