Close your eyes and imagine the following: you are scuba diving in the middle of the ocean, and when you surface, you find the boat that brought you there gone. You have no food, no fresh water, no light, nothing except your scuba gear. Seriously, close your eyes and picture yourself in that situation just for a few moments. What would you do? What could you do? You’re floating in the middle of nowhere without a sense of direction, the ocean current taking you where it will, and nothing to survive. Now close your eyes and picture yourself in the same situation at night, in pitch-blackness, floating. With sharks circling around you.

Even if you didn’t close your eyes and imagine, you can assume that’s a rather precarious situation to be in, and one that none of us would ever want to have happen to us. In “Open Water,” though, that’s precisely the situation, and while 75% of the movie is spent in the middle of the ocean, it makes for an anxiety driven, tense tragedy. While the “Blair Witch Project” convinced me never to go camping again, “Open Water” has done the same for swimming in the ocean: never again. For a movie to affect you in the real world like that is a testament to the environment portrayed in the film.

That environment is the open ocean, as depicted in the title. When xxx and yyy take a last minute vacation to take a break from their hectic business schedule, they fly to the Caribbean to enjoy some sun and sand. They also decide to take a deep-sea scuba tour to explore the local reefs. However, when one of the guides miscounts the number of passengers back on board, the couple is unknowingly left in the middle of the ocean. When they surface, the boat has departed, and the two are left floating in the middle of the ocean, unsure of what has occurred.

So begins their battle for survival, and the basis of the movie. As the couple floats adrift, they talk, argue, scream, cry, and contemplate their fate. Sharks circle their feet, boats appear on the horizon then disappear, all teasing them, albeit cruelly, with the thought of their demise or their rescue. When day turns to night, and the blackness of their environment sets in, the lightning bouncing in the clouds above them is the only light available to them, and it comes in loud, cracking flashes, adding even more terror to the already tense situation.

Since the couple is basically floating a majority of the film, only their top 25% of their bodies are shown, and even though there isn’t much on the screen to view, only water and bobbing heads, the bleakness of the situation drives their conversations. This in no way takes anything away from the film, and the story of how they got there is a simple yet effective way to show the couple’s path and introduce their characters. Even the method of filming, utilizing home video-style footage of their trip adds to the realism of the tale.

Without taking too much away from the ending, I was pleased that this film does not, in fact, have a Hollywood-type “happy ending,” but you’ll have to see for yourself. Of course, the movie is based on true events, and it captures that reality. If you close your eyes, you can picture it. All I know is, thanks to “Open Water,” I will never go on a scuba expedition, so if you’re planning one any time soon, go do it before seeing this movie. You can thank me when you get back…if you get back.