Shark Month continues on the Murder Made Fiction podcast. Following our cross-over with Horror Queers on 1975’s Jaws, Norwegian film, Kon-Tiki (2012), and 2003’s Open Water, we’re closing things out with Andrew Trauki‘s 2010 film The Reef.

In the film, a group of five friends and acquaintances become stranded when their boat hits a coral reef off the coast of Australia and capsizes. They have to make the impossible decision to swim through shark infested water to an island that they cannot see in the hopes of being rescued.

The reality is that the actual story is much more grim. In 1983, 28 year old Ray Boundy and two colleagues were out on a shrimp trawler off the North-Eastern coast of Australia when they were attacked by a 15 ft shark. The creature capsized the boat (no coral reef required!), and 24 year old deckhand Dennis Patrick Murphy sacrificed himself to buy the other two time to swim away.

Ultimately this only provided 21 year old cook Linda Anne Horton a little more time. She, too, was attacked and killed, all while holding onto Boundy’s hand. He then managed to swim through the night before he was rescued, spending a cumulative 36 hours in the water. 

Trauki’s film includes several of these details, albeit with a dash of sensationalism. It’s a solid shark film with clear ties to both Open Water as well as Jaws, making it the perfect title to close the month out.

Want even more Murder Made Fiction? Be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where Jenn and I have 120 episodes and nearly 80 hours of exclusive content including a full primer on “The Pillow Pyro” John Leonard Orr, episode by episode coverage of Apple TV’s Smoke starring Jurnee Smolett and Taron Egerton, a spoiler-y review of Nick Offerman and Jacob Tremblay’s latest Sovereign, and a bonus episode on Ron Howard’s Backdraft at the end of the month.