Director: Hans Horn, Germany, 15, 95min
Stars: Susan May Pratt, Richard Speight Jr.
On general release
A group of too-pretty, too-confident young folk head out to sea in a yacht. After jumping overboard for a swim without lowering the ladder they need to get back on deck, they find themselves facing an ordeal that most of them won’t survive. So similar in its basic premise to the shark attack picture Open Water that it’s been marketed as Open Water 2 in some territories, Adrift is a harrowing mini-disaster film, homing in on one life-or-death problem. There are no sharks or pirates just the frustration of being caught between a horrible death and 10ft of slippery hull. The relationship tangles are slightly over-emphatic, but Horn works up to a powerful, storm-drenched finish.
KIM NEWMAN
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