Ok I'm NEVER going scuba diving. EVER.

[Bouncy Ball]

I'm watching "Open Water." It's stressing me out so badly. And I find I'm also quite annoyed by those two. She strikes me as a tad bit whiney, though to be fair, I might be too in that situation.

I can tell you one thing: the swarming sharks would freak me out a hell of a lot more than they are.

I'm so stressed by this movie I'm thinking about turning it off. I've also got "The Village" and "Wicker Park."

Anyone see this? Did you like it? Please don't tell me how it ends, though I suspect they both just die.....

[Bouncy Ball]

1. OMG it just got worse.

Yeah, I'm reaching for the stop button. I can't take this. I'm trying to study and work on a research project at the same time and I am TOTALLY distracted.

[yvr girl]

5. Why are you watching a movie when you're trying to get research done?

Just say NO.

[Bouncy Ball]

6. It's not a movie you have to really look at every second

so I figured I could just sort of have it on in the background and half pay attention to it, but nooooo, it's totally stressful and slightly bad at the same time. Like a train wreck.

[yvr girl]

27. Are you hearing the theme from Jaws in your head?

da, da. da, da.

[Bouncy Ball]

30. Heh. No. It ended several minutes ago.

Now I can get back to desperately trying to think of a research topic. In between clicking on "My Posts." LOL!

[shoelace414]

2. an experience Scoba diver has said

he always rips a $20 in half gives one half to a boat crew member and tells him he'll get the other $20 after he gets back from diving.

[vi5]

3. I liked it. It played on my biggest fear....

I have one of those fear/fascination things going on with the ocean in general and sharks specifically.

[mike_c]

4. boo!

[Dookus]

7. I just bought it

but haven't watched it yet. I'm a SCUBA diver.... I bet it'll scare me!

[MidwestTransplant]

10. That and The Ring are the scariest movies I have ever seen.

[ET Awful]

16. I didn't like the Ring as much, but Open Water freaked me right the

fuck out. It took me a LONG time to fall asleep that night :)

[Bouncy Ball]

17. Glad I'm watching it in the afternoon.

The last ten minutes are probably the worst part, aren't they?

[ET Awful]

23. I refuse to say :) n/t

[Bouncy Ball]

11. I'll be interested to know your reaction.

In my opinion, they aren't the best actors I've ever seen, but they do a decent job for what was asked of them.

Post about it when you watch it, or send me a PM.

[MercutioATC]

20. I just bought it too (today) and I dive. I'm watching it tonight.

I'd never get on one of those cattle boats in the Carribean, though. Too many people to keep track of.

[ScreamingMeemie]

8. This could do it too....

[Left Is Write]

9. I never had any intention of scuba diving BEFORE that movie.

It isn't sharks that bother me, though. I guess you could say I'm a bit claustrophobic in certain situations. There is NO WAY I would want to be deep underwater, in a place I could not get out of quickly.

Scuba diving is not for me.

[Bouncy Ball]

12. I don't think I'd mind the scuba diving part

but I ain't doin' it now! LOL!

Unless I use that $20 bill trick someone wrote about above.

[Dookus]

29. I've been on plenty of dive boats

all over the world. Every one I've been on is super-cautious about making sure all divers are back on board, sometimes to the point of annoyance. They take roll-calls and headcounts, usually double-checked by another crewmember.

I've only heard of two cases like this - one in Australia and one in Southern California off the Channel Islands. In the Australia case (which the movie is partially based on), the couple simply disappeared. Nobody knows what happened, but some have speculated it was a hoax or life insurance fraud. The sharks and everything else is pure speculation.

In fact, SCUBA divers aren't at great risk of shark attack - windsurfers, surfers and swimmers are at greater risk. Shark's tend to flee from scuba divers - I know: I've gone looking for 'em. Surface swimmers are more at risk because sharks mistake them for their normal food such as seals. A shark underwater knows a scuba diver isn't what they normally eat.

[yardwork]

34. It's true. When was the last time we read about a diver being attacked?

On the east coast of the U.S. it is usually children splashing in shallow water who get bitten by sharks. It can be very serious, even fatal. Shark people say don't swim at dusk and avoid the water when it is very warm, in July and August. Sharks come close to shore during warm weather and at dusk.

If you see a lot of dolphins in the water or birds fishing right offshore, it means that there are sharks there too. They're all eating the same fish.

[yardwork]

24. Piece of advice - don't ever go spelunking (caving)

It cured me of claustrophobia. I went in high school, and there was a point where I realized I was six hours from the top, and no matter what I did, it was going to take six hours or more to get me out, so panicking was out of the question.

I don't recommend that form of cure, in case it doesn' work!

[Left Is Write]

33. ACK!

I'm hyperventilating at just the *thought* of being six hours away from a cave exit.

[yardwork]

35. Sorry! Some of the cave rooms are real big, though!

And sometimes there is a crack or a hole in a big cathedral ceiling that lets in the sun. Feel better?

[Left Is Write]

38. Nope. If I can't get out quickly, that's all that matters.

Likewise, I didn't like sitting in the back of a windowless classroom, especially an overcrowded classroom, far from the door.

When I was nine months pregnant with my second, we attended my mother-in-law's graduation ceremony when she received her Master's degree. The place was packed. After the ceremony, the crowd of hundreds of people migrated from the auditorium to another room for a reception. There were far too many people crammed into too small a space trying to get from one place to another, and in that massive sea of moving flesh, I had my very first actual panic attack.

For some reason, I have NO problems with elevators, though.

[dubyaD40web]

13. Open Water sux'd IMHO

But The Village was pretty good.

[Bouncy Ball]

15. I can't decide yet on Open Water.

I've only got about six minutes left, so I decided to finish it.

I'd have to say overall "eh." Scary, creepy, VERY disturbing, but not the best movie I've ever seen. Just one of the most disturbing.

[sundog]

14. hey bb

read this when it's over... this is how I felt about it:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=2482524#2482864

[Bouncy Ball]

18. Less than three minutes until the end.

And I'll go click on your link. I'm not liking how this is going, though. Not at ALL. Damn.

[Bouncy Ball]

19. Well SHIT!

I don't want to spoil it, but DAMN! SHIT!

[yardwork]

26. Could you spoil it for me with a Spoiler Warning? Please?

I want to know what happens at the end and I'll never watch it. I haven't recovered from Jaws yet and I saw that in 1975.

[Bouncy Ball]

28. Do you mean you WANT to know what happens?

If that's the case, I'll PM you, but I don't want to say it here, becuase there are people who have it and haven't seen it yet.

Let me know if you want me to PM you.

[yardwork]

31. Yes, please PM me! Everybody's talking about this movie

and I'll never, ever see it. I would like to know what happens at the end.

[mondo joe]

21. If I want to see 2 people whimper while they wait to die I'll just stay ho

First thing I thought when I saw the preview: If I want to see 2 people whimper while they wait to die I'll just stay home.

[Bouncy Ball]

22. Well, if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't have rented it.

:-(

I'm not particularly left feeling scared or anything. Just sad.

[SarahB]

25. The only person I'd trust to dive with...

is someone who not only knew about the technical aspects of diving, but also in depth about the species in the area and what that means. I imagine safety is rather relative depending on who you are with. Just like I wouldn't want a med student operating on me, if I were to ever dive, I'd want it to be with someone who knows their stuff. Then I'd have no problem with it.

[Worst Username Ever]

32. It sucked.

Although given its low budget, I think they did a pretty good job. I also admire that they used unknown actors. But the characters were wholly unlikeable, and I was having trouble relating to them in the situation because they were so unlike the people that I know. Even before the disaster I was annoyed by them.

[Az_lefty]

36. I'm not going surfing either...

[Lisa]

37. this actually almost happened to a woman who works in my office

She was in Thailand last month, conducting a reef survey to collect data for her MSc degree.

Her team was underwater when the wave passed over them. When they surfaced, the dive boat was gone. (It wasn't due to miscounting -- it had been swept away.) I don't know if anybody in the group had seen the movie, but when she got in touch with her lab back in Canada, she said that they were pretty scared. Luckily there was a navigation buoy nearby, and they swam to it and spent about 5 hours holding onto it, until a rescue ship arrived. They didn't believe the tsunami stories at first, until they got within sight of the coast and saw the wreckage of the community they had left just that morning.

It could easily have turned into an "Open Water" situation, because they could have been overlooked in all the commotion -- imagine if everybody who knew they were going out had been killed or incapacitated!


Michi's story is mentioned in this article.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/30/kosurin.eyewitness/