Fear Below Digital Release Review

4 star atmospheric and toothsome shark thriller.

Fear Below is a 2025 Australian period action/ adventure/ horror film, co-written by Gregory Moss (The Cost) and Matthew Holmes (Twin Rivers, The Legend of Ben Hill), who also directs.

It is available on UK Digital Platforms from 19th May 2025 and on DVD from 9th June 2025, courtesy of Signature Entertainment.

“It’s like this. Friend of mine, stupid f*****g idiot he is, he drove into a river about forty miles north of here. Now, inside that car were some things that belonged to me.”

It’s 1946 and in the Australian outback, a group of bank robbers are driving their spoils to a safe location. Swerving to avoid something in the dark, Dwight (Kevin Dee – Out of Order) veers down a hill and the van sinks to the bottom of a river, along with it’s precious cargo of gold bullion. He and his passenger Shaun (Maximillian Johnson – High Ground) get out safely, but boss Dylan (Jake Ryan – My Melbourne) and his henchman Janusz (Josh McConville – The Correspondent) are following behind in another car. Dylan is less than happy and Dwight pays the ultimate price.

Meanwhile, at the Sea Dog Diving headquarters, things are looking dire. The boss Ernie (Arthur Angel – Red Dog, Ghost Rider) is drunk again, they’ve just lost out on a job to another professional diving outfit and he can’t afford to pay his dive team, Clara (Hermione Corfield – Rust Creek, Sea Fever) and Jimmy (Jacob Junior Nayinggul – High Ground). It seems like their luck is finally turning when Dylan arrives, offering a handsome paycheck for salvaging his belongings from the van in the river.

But it soon becomes apparent that it will be more difficult than it sounds when Clara is attacked by a large aggressive bull shark on their first dive. Local fisherman Bob (Clayton Watson – The Matrix Revolutions, Kane) is called in to take care of the problem, with his little fishing boat ‘Jingo’. When that goes about as well as you would expect, our intrepid divers find out that the people employing them are at least as dangerous as the shark, if not more so.

“This is our first paid job in over four months. You should be as happy as Larry. They said no questions and that’s fine by me.”

Fear Below is a very enjoyable watch and a brilliant idea for a story. The dual threat posed by the shark below the water and the gangsters above adds a whole new element of peril to the story.

The locations are stunning and excellent use of practical special effects makes the shark as scary and realistic as any you will see in a ‘B’ movie. The acting is very good too and the underwater sequences feel genuinely oppressive. You really feel the sense of isolation, especially given the period nature of the diving equipment.

A superb example of tension building, this is a really fun and absolutely well worth a watch.

“They’ll figure it out soon enough. Besides, once it’s done, they’re dead anyway.”