Movies
Death Valley (V)
“In the end, the film—buoyed by the cast—keeps interest up all the way to the final frames and that must say something since if you’ve seen enough movies than I can assure you, you’ve seen this one before.”
Ever sit down and watch a film only to find you’re totally overcome with the sensation that you’ve seen this story before? That’s the overwhelming emotion that I get from watching DEATH VALLEY. The film—which made it’s film festival debut back in 2004 but is just now seeing the light of DVD store shelves—is a cut and paste story of backwoods survival. Only this time, there are no woods…only desert.
Originally titled Mojave, DEATH VALLEY (catchy upgrade don’t you think) is the story of four friends who set out into the California desert for a weekend rave only to run afoul of a group of redneck bikers. When the friends try to defend themselves against an attack—killing one of the gang in the process—they find themselves squarely on the receiving end of the biker’s wrath.
DEATH VALLEY immediately conjures up a barrage of other genre films, from Al Adamson’s 1969 biker flick SATAN’S SADISTS to DELIVERANCE and even Penelope Spheeris’ late 80’s punks-in-the-desert flick DUDES. It just all seems tired in concept and with a lesser cast behind the film it probably would have come off as a muddled mess of the film, inhabited by a bunch of overacting goons. However, Writer/Directors David Kebo and Rudi Liden have managed to cast a pretty solid assortment of characters to populate their dusty revenge thriller.
While it’s not exactly the A-list on parade here many of the faces associated with this production will exact a degree of “hey I know them from somewhere” recognition. On the side of the good guys, we can see a Pre-BORDERLAND and Post-CABIN FEVER performance from Rider Strong as the rich friend who hopes his daddy can get them out this mess. Eric Christian Olsen of DUMB AND DUMBERER infamy stars as Josh the voice of reason amongst the pals and the one who wasn’t planning on coming along in the first place (isn’t that always the case). The lone female character and the catalyst for the films only really dramatic arc is played by Genevieve Cortese (TV’s WILDFIRE). Over on the other end of spectrum, we meet generally funny-guy performer Vince Vieluf (RAT RACE) as one of the greasy trigger-happy bikers and the highly underrated Dash Mihok (I AM LEGEND) as their psychotic leader.
The fact that all of these actors can commit completely to the story and provide compelling performances is really what sells a film that could have been just as bad as any number of low and micro-budget films that are tilling the same soil. The screenplay is by-the-book so don’t expect anything new or engaging to be revealed over the course of the film. The direction is totally serviceable to the story and the action keeps the production moving along at a nice pace. As in most revenge-style road films, most of the deaths involve car crashes and gunshot wounds so if you’re thinking that DEATH VALLEY might be serving up some minor torture-porn like Zev Berman’s BORDERLAND you want to look elsewhere—everybody in this film dies of a nice and normal murder scenario.
With a cast and crew that deliver on most accounts, it’s hard to find any real complaint about what DEATH VALLEY has to offer. None of the characters are overly annoying (which I actually find to be a rarity in most genre films) and the screenplay while pedestrian in its plot is hardly puerile. In the end, the film—buoyed by the cast—keeps interest up all the way to the final frames and that must say something since if you’ve seen enough movies than I can assure you, you’ve seen this one before.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Daniel Kraus took the literary world by storm back in 2023 with the release of his hit novel Whalefall. A terrifying yet intimate survival thriller with mythological undertones, the book was almost immediately bombarded with offers from movie studios wanting to adapt its claustrophobic imagery to the big screen.
Fast forward to June of 2026, and we finally got our first glimpse at Brian Duffield’s long-awaited adaptation of Whalefall, starring Austin Abrams as our unfortunate lead who gets swallowed alive by a sperm whale. While this two-and-a-half-minute teaser only covers the beginning of the story, it’s already been making waves online (and in-person at select 4DX promotional screenings) as one of the most stressful cinematic experiences of the year.
In fact, my own wife had to cover her eyes and exclaim, “You’re definitely not dragging me to watch this one” when we saw the whale’s jaws begin to close in on Abrams, with this incident alone already leaving me convinced that this will likely be one of the biggest genre hits of the year. With that in mind, I’d like to invite you to take a closer look at the teaser in order to break down interesting details and get a better idea of what’s in store for genre fans when the movie finally comes out this October.
Of course, as usual, don’t forget to comment below if you noticed something we didn’t!
Now, without further ado, here are five things we learned from the Whalefall trailer!
5. Austin Abrams Performed Many of His Own Stunts
Much like in his previous film, No One Will Save You, Duffield insisted that this visceral experience should be grounded by our main character’s believable reactions, regardless of the plot’s effects-heavy setup. That’s why the camera always makes sure to linger on Abrams through his diving mask, so we know that it’s really him going through this ordeal alongside the audience.
While plenty of CGI was used in order to bring this larger-than-life story to the big screen without killing our leading man, Abrams apparently insisted on performing many of his underwater stunts himself (several of which are visible in the trailer) – much to the chagrin of a worried Duffield and the flick’s stunt coordinator, Shauna Duggins.
4. The Film Seamlessly Transitions Between the California Coast and Underwater Sets
Duffield obviously wasn’t about to drag his crew out to the middle of the ocean and shoot inside a real sperm whale, but it’s reassuring to see the filmmaker blend on-location footage with the underwater tank segments and the literal belly of the whale set.
There may be plenty of CGI stitching these elements together, but the trailer shows us that only the truly impossible shots are completely digital, meaning that the filmmakers didn’t take the easy way out when it came to adapting this unique story.
3. The Whale is Only Part of the Story
Book adaptations tend to leave out inner monologues and the occasional flashback in order to streamline the narrative (which is one reason why it’s so difficult to translate Stephen King novels to the big screen), but a claustrophobic parable like Kraus’ Whalefall would get a bit dull after a while if the whole thing was entirely set within the creature’s stomach.
That’s why it’s such a relief that the trailer hints at how Duffield will also be adapting many of the book’s introspective moments chronicling our protagonist’s harsh upbringing under his troubled father. Not only do these inclusions give the audience some much-appreciated breathing room, but they also give Josh Brolin a chance to shine as a truly complicated character.
2. The Movie is Keeping the Book’s Scientific Accuracy…
While Kraus’ novel was inspired by a viral video of kayakers nearly being swallowed by a humpback whale, the writer ended up consulting with marine biologists about exactly what kind of situation might lead to a whale actually eating a human being alive.
The answer was surprisingly specific, as cetaceans are almost universally known to be friendly towards humans. However, even a gentle giant can make mistakes, and as we see in the trailer, Abrams’ unpleasant fate is more of an accident than anything else – with the massive sperm whale only trapping the poor diver in the first (and thankfully acid-free) chamber of its stomach due to a mix-up involving a giant squid.
Fortunately for the film’s special effects artists, they can now reference the first-ever footage of a real-life sperm whale chowing down on one such squid, as this freaky recording was released late last year.
1. …With a Catch!
Duffield may be doing his best to recreate the grounded (or is it submerged?) thrills of Kraus’ novel, but there are limits to what can be depicted onscreen while still guaranteeing an entertaining movie. That’s why it’s no surprise that Whalefall will take advantage of certain cinematic parlor tricks as the director tests the limits of both physics and biology so we can actually watch his movie.
For starters, the innards of the whale itself have been greatly exaggerated so there’s enough space to make out the action, and in the spirit of movies like Neil Marshall’s The Descent, there also seems to be plenty of non-diegetic lighting meant to show us what’s going on even if Abram’s character wouldn’t necessarily be able to see anything.
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