10 Smartest Decisions In Recent Horror Movies

8. Making The Most Of Your Tools - The Reef: Stalked

Barbarian Tess Mother
RLJE Films

To your humble scribe, Andrew Traucki's The Reef is the very best shark movie not named Jaws.

So, when a sequel - The Reef: Stalked - swam its way to screens last summer, there was some hope that this second Reef picture would capture some of the nerve-shredding dread and tension of its predecessor. Unfortunately, Stalked proved to be somewhat of a disappointment in that regard. Still, the finale of this second Reef feature did feature a rather smart decision during its final act.

Completely unrelated to The Reef, this sequel centres on sisters Nic and Annie, and their friends Jodie and Lisa, as they find themselves out in the water and, err, stalked, by a great white shark. You see, this group had met up to mark the death of Nic and Annie's sibling Cath, who was killed by her abusive husband nine months ago.

By The Reef: Stalked's finale, Lisa has fallen victim to this shark, and our remaining trio are stranded in a small, knackered boat that's taking on water. It's here that Nic comes up with an extremely simple, but extremely effective plan. Realising that the only items on the boat with them are a mesh net and a machete, Nic lures in the apex predator, throws the net over it, and then eventually stabs the beast to death.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.