'Chum' Review: Copy, Paste, Swim. Did Chum just steal the entire plot of Dangerous Animals?
- 22 minutes ago
- 3 min read
By Shauna Bushe - June 10, 2026
Chum (2026) tries to inject some fresh blood into the overcrowded shark movie genre by blending a sunny destination wedding with a slasher-fisherman twist. Despite its promising premise, Chum sinks faster than it can swim with an uninspired narrative leaving the film dead in the water.
What is 'Chum' about?
Directed by Johnathan Zuck, Chum (2026) follows Tina and Tom, a deeply miserable newlywed couple whose destination wedding party takes a catastrophic turn during a Mediterranean catamaran cruise. Torn apart by a massive ideological clash between her oil-industry career and his environmental activism, the couple is forced to put their impending annulment on hold when a massive shark attacks and sinks their boat, leaving the survivors stranded in open water. Just when it seems a local fisherman named Roy has come to their rescue, the nightmare deepens: Roy is a psychopath obsessed with killing the monster that took his own wife years prior. Instead of saving the traumatized wedding party, he traps them on his vessel to use as live bait, forcing the fractured group to find a way to survive both the beast circling below and the madman controlling the deck.
Instead of forging its own path, Chum relies far too heavily on the cinematic DNA of Dangerous Animals, mimicking key plot beats from that blockbuster shark hit almost note for note. Where Dangerous Animals used razor-sharp dialogue, claustrophobic cinematography, and impeccable pacing to build unbearable tension, Chum falters. The suspense sequences feel clunky, the CGI shark lacks scares, and the atmosphere fails to create a convincing sense of suspense between the hunter and the hunted. It’s a risky cinematic mutation: blending a serial killer fisherman, alongside a creature feature. While that may be great on paper, it’s a mess in motion. Lacking any immersive precision fundamental to sustaining momentum in a high-octane genre.
Where Chum fails as a detailed thriller, it has a lot to offer as a mindless, unhinged creature feature by leaning heavily into raw, unapologetic gore. The film treats its cast like an all-you-can-eat buffet, transforming pristine waters into a bloodbath filled with severed heads, legs, and arms. Because the shark is positioned as a relentless killing machine – complete with widely criticized, campy digital effects that make it cross over into "so bad it's good" territory. The movie bypasses artistic suspense to deliver exactly what its title promises: pure, blood-soaked entertainment for gorehounds.
The film’s sole saving grace is Alice Eve. As Tina, her strong, committed, and emotionally grounded performance anchors an otherwise weak ensemble. She commands the screen with genuine terror, elevating a limited script and subpar set design. Unfortunately, she is supported by a stereotypical "lamb to the slaughter" friend group whose exasperating personalities make it nearly impossible to root for their survival. Furthermore, Jim Klock’s portrayal of Roy (The Fisherman) suffers from severe tonal inconsistency; shifting erratically from compassionate to ruthlessly tossing characters overboard as shark bait, his character reduces any tension or suspense that could have built between him and his captives.
In the end, Alice Eve provides a much-needed anchor for the audience to root for, however Chum ultimately sinks under the weight of its own unoriginality. It occasionally delivers a genuinely laugh-out-loud moment, but it borrows far too heavily from Dangerous Animals to stand out in a crowded genre.
'Chum' released in US cinemas and digital platforms on June 5, 2026.
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