Since we consider ourselves humanitarians at heart, we’re thoughtfully putting forth this helpful list of activities in which you may want to consider engaging, in lieu of seeing the recently-released hokum that is Open Water. Seriously. Any of these options serve as good, worthwhile alternatives. Hell, exhaust the list if you have to.
1. Bask outside near a neighbor’s pool, or a city pool, or whatever. It hardly matters. Study the people flailing about in the water and try and pick out who you think might be the worst actors if you were to go into a career producing community theater workshops and needed to hire these people. While engaging in this impromptu casting session, it could be fucking raining or hailing and you’d still be better off.
2. Oh, and before you go to the pool, or beach, or whatever, take at least twenty to thirty minutes too long to get there, until you’ve bored your mates to death with some asinine and wholly irrelevant setup about how “you need your vacation time to escape this crazy job.” Even if you’re not on vacation, because remember, the only possible goal for this entire exercise is to annoy your audience, unless maybe you’re merely padding the trip’s length, in which case, it’s still not OK, and you, my friend, are an asshole. And when you eventually arrive at the pool, sit around for a good while longer doing nothing more than engaging in some worthless exposition about how nice it is to not be working.
3. Stare at the pool longingly, and mull over the fact that maybe, just maybe, the water is well-heated, and if you were to slit your wrists and just lay there awhile, you might be put out of your misery.
4. Eh, fuck the pool. Throw a dinner/discussion party, and set the evening’s topic to “Examples of Films Being Produced on DV Because They Don’t Deserve a Real Film’s Budget”. If anyone brings up Anniversary Party as an example, come to its defense, and explain how you’d rather watch that film ten consecutive times than have to endure Open Water.
5. As dinner approaches, keep devising stalling tactics to fill up time. For instance, exclaim loudly that you think your leg is getting cramped. Oh, wait, look at that, that cleared up! Phew! Now, however, you’re falling prey to motion sickness, even though you’re seated at a table. Oh, that, too, passed. Wait! Hey, look, I think I saw a car drive by outside this window over here, oh, wait, it turned the corner and is gone now. Shit, I’m getting a cramp again. If your dinner guests start beating you about the face mercilessly, it’s entirely forgivable because they clearly have some understanding of a bad narrative structure.
6. Think about that episode of Magnum, P.I. that was comprised solely of Tom Selleck being stranded in the ocean, having to tread water for hours on end while he endured a torrent of waves and other oceanic dangers for the duration of the entire episode. Make note that this particular episode of what would otherwise be bad network television comes off like fucking Antonioni or Kieslowski compared to Open Water.
7. Check out Maria Full of Grace or Code 46 and marvel at the injustice of studios’ marketing initiatives.
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