- 1Blanchard Ryan, Daniel Travis, Saul Stein
Open Water might manage to trigger thalassophobia with its title alone. The film is based on the real-life account of two scuba divers who are left behind to fend for themselves when their dive boat fails to take an accurate headcount. Basically, Open Water is the worst film imaginable for thalassophobes.
On top of the film's true-life inspiration and the aforementioned open water, the creators filmed with real sharks.
More Open Water
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- 2Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, Samuel L. Jackson
An isolated underwater research facility is the setting for this 1999 sci-fi horror flick about genetically engineered sharks who, of course, attack the flooded facility during a storm at sea. Directed by Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger), Deep Blue Sea is as much an action movie as it is a horror flick.
There's enough open water, flooding chambers, and, of course, sudden shark attacks to make just about anyone squirm at least a bit.
More Deep Blue Sea - 3Claire Holt, Mandy Moore, Chris Johnson
While the surface of the ocean is terrifying, what's underneath can be much worse. The movie 47 Meters Down (2017) utilizes the same premise as other aquatic horror films, but it does them one better by stranding its two actresses not just in the ocean with sharks - but beneath it.
When two sisters vacation in Mexico, they're talked into cage diving to see sharks up close. Of course, something inevitably goes wrong, and the cage ends up sinking to the bottom of the ocean, surrounded by sharks.
- 4Robert Redford
Notable for its one-person cast, All is Lost stars Robert Redford as a man trying to survive in the open ocean after his boat's hull is torn open by a stray shipping container. Because Redford is alone at sea, the film has almost no spoken dialogue. Instead, viewers are thrust into Redford's shoes as he attempts to repair the ship, survive a storm, and face other hazards.
Ultimately, the ship capsizes, and he finds himself on an inflatable life raft in the open ocean - surely a nightmare for anyone who has thalassophobia.
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- 5Zoe Naylor, Adrienne Pickering, Gyton Grantley
While sailing to Indonesia, a group of friends capsize their boat and try to swim to a nearby island. Unfortunately, the water is also inhabited by a great white shark. This harrowing Australian survival film - the second from writer-director Andrew Traucki - is based on a true story.
The real-life origins of this open-ocean horror story are sure to make it even more terrifying for thalassophobes.
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- 6George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reilly
Director Wolfgang Petersen is no stranger to tales of survival on the open sea. Probably most famous for his 1981 film Das Boot, Petersen also directed the 2006 remake of The Poseidon Adventure (simply called Poseidon). The Perfect Storm is another movie based on a true story - in this case, the unfortunate fate of the Andrea Gail, a fishing boat that was lost at sea during the "Perfect Storm" of 1991.
Though the film received an Academy Award nomination for its impressive visual effects, it was also beset with lawsuits by family members of the actual crew of the Andrea Gail.
- 7Matthew Davis, Bruce Greenwood, Olivia Williams
What's scarier than being out in the middle of the ocean? Being in a submarine hundreds of feet below the surface. And what's even more terrifying than that? Being in a haunted submarine hundreds of feet below the surface.
For some thalassophobes, the claustrophobic interior of the submarine may provide ample insulation from the reminders of the dark waters all around, and the supernatural trappings might be enough of a distraction to forget the crushing depths temporarily. However, there are plenty of scenes in Below that will undoubtedly trigger your thalassophobia.
- 8
The Shallows
While most thalassophobia-inducing films take place far out at sea, The Shallows (2016) is a stark reminder that the ocean can be terrifying even when you're just a little ways from land. Blake Lively plays a surfer who is enjoying the waves a few hundred yards from shore when a great white shark attacks her. She struggles against her injuries and the incoming tide, makes friends with a wounded seagull, and tries to outwit the shark.
Even those who aren't usually bothered by the ocean might find themselves squirming in their seats during this film.
- 9Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy
There have been quite a few classic shark movies, but whale movies deserve their due as well. In the Heart of the Sea, based on the book of the same name, is the true-life tale of the sinking of the whaling ship Essex, an event which provided partial inspiration for Moby Dick.
Starring the god of thunder himself, Chris Hemsworth, the film features plenty of distressing scenes of people attempting to survive the perils of the open ocean, all while evading a massive albino whale.
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- 10Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss
Steven Spielberg's Jaws famously contributed to a decline in beach attendance after the film's release. In fact, one of its taglines promised, "You'll never go in the water again." The film is heralded as a timeless classic thanks to Spielberg's masterful use of tension, as well as the movie's reliance on practical effects.
Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately for thalassophobes), the practical effects have managed to hold up over time, meaning the film continues to terrify new generations of beach-goers.
- 11Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, Walter Slezak
Released in 1944, Lifeboat was Alfred Hitchcock's first attempt at employing a restricted setting, which he would later use to significant effect in films like Rope, Rear Window, and Dial M for Murder. Lifeboat may not be as well known as those films, but it earned Hitchcock an Academy Award nomination for Best Director (his second).
The film derives much of its suspense from the interactions between people stuck on a lifeboat after an Allied ship and a German U-boat sink one another, highlighting the ever-present horrors associated with survival at sea.
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- 12Pål Sverre Hagen, Anders Baasmo, Gustaf Skarsgård
For those who aren't bothered by open water, Kon-Tiki (2012) makes for a triumphant story of adventure on the high seas; however, for thalassophobes, the idea of a three-month journey on a wooden raft with no modern equipment or amenities is the stuff of nightmares. This Norwegian dramatization of Thor Heyerdahl's famous 1947 journey was nominated for an Academy Award and was the most expensive Norwegian film of all time when it was made.
Heyerdahl was an ethnographer who believed Polynesia had been settled by people from South America, challenging then-accepted beliefs. To prove his theory, he set out on a 4,300-mile voyage using only equipment that would have been available in pre-Columbian South America. After 101 days at sea, the crew all made landfall safely, though that doesn't make watching the cinematic adaptation of the voyage any less harrowing.
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- 13
The Wave
Thalassophobia can include a fear of waves, and few movies drive home the devastating power of tides more than the Norwegian disaster film The Wave. Released in 2015, the film tells the story of a mountain crevasse that collapses into a narrow fjord, creating a 260-foot-tall tsunami. Based on real events in which similar disasters have occurred (though, of course, never quite to this scale), the film becomes even more nerve-wracking when you learn that all the actors performed their own stunts.
These stunts even required Kristoffer Joner to train with free-divers to hold his breath for three minutes.
- 14
The Last Shark
This film may be a ridiculous rip-off of Jaws, but The Last Shark is an absolute nightmare for anyone who has thalassophobia. In both Brazil and Spain, the film was released in a way that implied it was a sequel to Jaws. However, it was pulled from American theaters over allegations of plagiarism. The final scene of this Italian shark movie (also known as Great White), features an animatronic shark menacing a handful of survivors trapped on a dock.
It can be pretty terrifying for those with a fear of the open water, even if the bobbing shark is often more comical than frightening.
- 15Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Tabu
Not all films that are likely to be problematic for thalassophobes are horror movies. Ang Lee's 2012 adaptation of Yann Martel's hit novel Life of Pi is pretty excruciating for those who don't like open water. If being lost at sea in a lifeboat isn't bad enough, the protagonist of Life of Pi has to share the boat with a Bengal tiger.
While the Oscar-winning special effects are often beautiful, they also showcase the desolation and horror of the open ocean as few other movies ever have.
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Out to Sea
In the middle of the ocean, no one can hear you scream.
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