'Chum' Review
- Joe Kucharski
- 6 hours ago
- 2 min read
Release Date: 06/05/26 [Cinemas / VOD]
Genre: Horror. Thriller.
MPAA: Not Rated.
Distributor: IFC Films.
The Verdict: A Mistake
With all respect to Moby-Dick and its immortal opening, call me Fishfood. Some nights ago, with little to occupy my thoughts save idle curiosity and the endless tides of streaming entertainment, I embarked upon Chum. I expected perhaps a modest voyage into shark-infested terror. Instead, I found myself adrift in waters shallow of thought and barren of suspense, where the fiercest predator was not the great white beneath the waves, but the screenplay itself.
Directed by Jonathan Zuck, Chum sets sail on familiar seas: grief-stricken fisherman Roy (Jim Klock) has spent years hunting the shark responsible for the death of the woman he loved. Reason has abandoned him, obsession has consumed him, and somewhere along the way, he arrives at the baffling conclusion that the surest way to catch his nemesis… is to use live humans as bait. With a premise that is as pulpy as it is convenient, such a twisted tale had the potential to become deliciously dark.
Alas, Chum never quite finds its bearings.
Fashioned in the mold of Captain Ahab, Roy is wide-eyed and sunburned, operating on motivations that seem to shift with the tide. Is he a grieving romantic? A slasher villain? A mad prophet of the sea? The film never settles the question, and so Roy drifts, much like the narrative itself.
When a wedding party crosses his path, fortune smiles upon the foolish. Among them are Tina (Alice Eve) and Tom (Eric Michael Cole) whose troubled romance might be doomed from the start. The supporting cast fares no better. Their characters land perfectly in the Venn diagram terminus of irritating, insufferable, and forgettable. Time and again, they make decisions so inane it is a wonder none of them swam directly into the shark’s open mouth.
And therein lies one of the film's greatest failings: the absence of tension.
For all its blood in the water, Chum rarely inspires fear. The shark appears when convenient, vanishes when necessary, and leaves behind neither dread nor anticipation. Compared to the terror of Jaws, or even the gleeful camp of Dangerous Animals, Chum is merely a leaky vessel.
Granted, the Maltese setting lends the film an attractive sheen. There are moments when the cinematography perfectly catches the endless blue horizon.
But these moments are fleeting.
The editing is choppy. The plot bobs aimlessly between revenge story, romance, and creature feature. Questions linger unanswered. Like its elusive – and noticeably AI – shark, the story surfaces briefly, then disappears beneath the waves.
Although with a killer title and a sharp premise, Chum only has enough bite to churn the water.
…and I only escaped alone to tell thee… watch Jaws instead.
