10 Hidden Gem Horror Monster Movies
2. The Reef
To some - your writer included - Andrew Traucki's The Reef is the very best shark movie not named Jaws.
Given how shark pictures so often have a stigma attached to them due to how much shark-driven dross there is out there, The Reef has largely swam under the radar, particularly in a mainstream sense. But seriously, this 2010 effort is absolutely masterful in how it crafts its tension.
In the most basic of terms, The Reef features a group of friends transporting a yacht from Australia to Indonesia. When that vessel capsizes, these pals are in a 12-mile race to get to land as a great white shark circles in. Unlike so many other such films, this apex predator doesn't just go straight for the kill each and every time there's the chance of a next meal, for it instead slowly plays with its food - menacing from afar, before menacing from closer in, to then making its move.
Making this all the more terrifying, the events of The Reef were actually inspired by a real-life tragedy in 1983. There, Ray Boundy was the solve survivor of an incident which took the life of two others after their trawler capsized and a great white shark swooped in. Boundy would be rescued after spending a mammoth 36 hours in the water.