Sometimes you just need a movie that knows what it is. Thrash is the kind of creature feature that we grew up loving. A monster movie that’s willing to embrace its chaos, the Netflix original film gives us plenty of gore, shark attacks, and absurd character beats. Director Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow) has made a career of letting his movies take fantastical twists and turns, and this one is no different.
What is Thrash about?
A hurricane is about to make landfall on the East Coast, swelling up to a Category 5. In the small town of Annieville, many are unconcerned because they are protected by levees. However, when they break, the water comes rushing into the town faster than people can react. When a meat truck breaks, its cargo attracts something even more dangerous than the floods: sharks.
With the new threats circling, the very pregnant Lisa (Phoebe Dynevor) does everything she can to survive. With the help of Dakota (Whitney Peak), she might even find shelter as her body goes into labor. Elsewhere in town, foster siblings Dee (Alyla Browne), Will (Dante Ubaldi), and Ron (Stacy Clausen) fight for survival. The only rescue coming for the survivors is Dakota’s uncle, Dr. Dale Edwards (Djimon Hounsou).
A good old-fashioned shark movie that never takes itself too seriously.
As soon as Thrash starts talking about Hurricane Henry, it lets us know just how crazy it wants to get. A meteorologist believes they should call the hurricane “Ted Bundy” because of the danger, which would be funny in its own right. However, combined with people who are unwilling to leave their homes for safety, Wirkola puts part of the blame on his characters. While some storms are possible to ride out, he knows that we’ll have less sympathy for most of the victims if they’re painted as dumb. Thrash seeks to capitalize on that advantage.
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Wirkola also keeps the character types and tropes in place to help hasten the storytelling. There’s a pregnant woman who is set as our protagonist. We see the young girl who has recently experienced extreme trauma but is going to face her fears. The found family seeks safety from predators (and also sharks) for the first time. Even the scientists are caricatures of the “never listened to” scientists. By taking these shortcuts in the narrative, Thrash has more time to give us silly and absurd shark attacks.
Wirkola knows exactly what kind of movie he’s making from the jump. He gives us the high body count we want with a shark film while also showing off some gnarly kills. More than once, Thrash dismembers a character and asks us to watch them fight for survival. They rarely make it. This also helps to avoid overreliance on the limited visual effects budgets. While the sharks are used effectively, Thrash does not overuse the visual models, keeping things fresh for the audience. The sharks don’t have too many variations of attack (after all, they are sharks), but there’s still plenty of fun to be had.
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Thrash also wears its influences on its sleeve. Jaws is all over the movie, frankly, to a distracting amount within the first ten minutes. The hurricane setup is playing with Crawl, while Renny Harlin’s Deep Blue Sea is just as influential on how the sharks attack. Some extra pieces of dialogue hint at a more sciency undertone to the story, but clocking in at 85 minutes on Netflix, Thrash cuts the fat where it can. Wirkola uses ADR to help fill in gaps of the story and set up events to come. They’re distracting, but he also knows that the shark attacks will pay off in spades anyway.
Ultimately, Thrash is cut from the same cloth as Under Paris but with fewer kills. It’s willing to give us the scalps of people who wrong our protagonists. It also does not push a single boundary in terms of storytelling. It knows that you want allusions to Jaws and the big payoffs when they matter most. It also knows that its five-ish protagonists need to prove their badass credentials, but does so in some of the most ridiculous ways imaginable.
Related: 10 Great Shark Movies That Aren’t ‘Jaws’
The actors have very little to do, yet it has a surprisingly excellent cast. Dynevor is the star and gets the screen time to prove it. Her character also takes enough risks and has some badass moments to prove the actress can still give a compelling performance in a downright silly movie. The Bridgerton does not often take on action roles, but she’s believable here.
Peak crafts a believably trauma-burdened character, though she does rely on tropes of agorophobia and PTSD at times. It’s not a performance to write home about, but she’s a servicable part of the flick. Clausen is miscast, but that falls entirely on his ridiculous accent. He’s having fun in the role, and anyone looking to question his talent will have those doubts erased later in 2026 when Leviticus releases.
Is Thrash worth watching?
Yes, but this is the ultimate turn-your-brain-off movie. If you examine anything about this movie too much, it falls apart, but you’re not here to question the logic of a shark attack movie. You’re here to watch sharks feast. Thrash is a turn-off your brain popcorn flick, and if you’re not in the mood for that, it’s an easy skip. However, I am ready to queue this up for a round 2. Sometimes you need a dumb but fun shark movie to help get you to the weekend.
Thrash releases on April 10, 2026. Netflix distributes.
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