‘Whalefall’ is weighed down by clunky pacing and an abundance of CG, but Abrams’ heart-wrenching performance saves it from drowning.
I first read Daniel Kraus’ Whalefall back when it was published in 2023. A novel packed with claustrophobia, giant squid, suffocation, body horror, and deep-sea terror, I found it a breathless read that had me turning the pages as fast as my trembling hands could manage. Flash to 2026, and Brian Duffield (No One Will Save You) is due to release his feature adaptation of the novel this weekend. The good news is, it’s still a terrifying experience that dives deep into a host of fears. The bad news? It’s still a terrifying experience that dives deep into a host of fears.
Co-written for the screen by Duffield and Kraus, Whalefall stars Austin Abrams (Resident Evil) as Jay. After his father, Mitt (Josh Brolin), drowns himself in the ocean he loves, his son grabs his scuba gear and sets out to find his body. He needs the closure to prove to his difficult dad not only that he can do it, but that he can also take care of himself. That’s put to the test when a massive sperm whale swallows Jay whole. With his air running out and the whale’s stomach trying to digest him, the poor bastard must put to use everything his father taught him, or stay trapped in the belly of the beast forever.
Whalefall marks the second film in the last two months (the other being Resident Evil) starring Austin Abrams in a mostly one-man survival horror show. After watching him do it twice now, I hope we see a lot more of him doing what he does best. The actor caught horror fans’ attention with his frantic and hilarious performance in Weapons. Whalefall and Resident Evil prove it wasn’t a fluke, with the actor once again showcasing his ability to carry a movie through not just entertaining antics, but an engaging vulnerability we don’t see enough of in male actors.
There’s already been discussion of Abrams as a “scream king”, and, yes, Whalefall provides more evidence for that title. The actor does a metric ton of high-pitched screaming as he crawls around the whale’s constricting stomach, gets bitten by a giant squid’s beak, and watches his hands suffer the effects of digestive fluids. But there’s so much more to what has quickly made Abrams a fan favorite that he shows here. He isn’t your average horror leading man, tough and gritty and looking like he sleeps at the gym. I wouldn’t even call him an “everyman”. He’s the scrawny guy like me who everyone doubts. You look at him and say, ‘Yeah, you’re not surviving that.’ So when/if he does, his triumph is all the more rewarding.
Abrams is basically the perfect casting for Jay, because Whalefall isn’t about a guy that gets swallowed by a whale. Not exactly. It’s about a guy who felt trapped by his father for his entire life. Brolin plays the imposing dad to a T. A grizzled fisherman and diver who loves nature and hates humanity, he has pushed and pushed Jay until Jay can no longer stand to be around him, even while dying from cancer. Throughout, we come to understand how difficult their relationship has been as Jay flashes back to memories he’d probably rather forget.
Whalefall is scary and intense, but more than anything, it’s a beautiful exploration of a father-son relationship and the trouble men have with expressing love for each other. Josh Brolin and Austin Abrams crying together…there aren’t enough examples of male vulnerability like that in film, especially from Brolin’s generation. To see that here…it’s everything for a young male audience still learning that it’s okay to cry, as silly as that is. If you ask me, Abrams is at the forefront of a new generation of men on screen who remind us what a real man is.
Yes, yes, yes, but is Whalefall scary? Rest assured, if you have any of the fears I mentioned above, you’ll never look at whales the same way again.
Through a blend of CG and a physical contraption, Abrams spends a majority of the film folded up in a wet cavern of tissue, toxic air, and whatever else the whale has swallowed. I’ve always viewed the deep sea as its own alien realm, and Duffield brings a similar idea to his visualization of the inside of the whale. One scene has Jay discover the giant squid in the belly with him. Frightening enough on its own, but Duffield shoots it like a moment out of Alien (a franchise he was recently rumored to be taking part in). The camera slowly pans over slimy limbs that blend with the whale’s flesh until it suddenly strikes like the tentacled horror it is. Cue me cringing. Crushed, cut, and partially digested, Jay goes through all manner of trauma inside the whale, with all the pain of his life with Mitt thrown back at him over the course of an hour.
If you read the book, you’ll be happy to know that not much has changed from page to screen. All the key moments are there, with only perhaps a few character scenes missing. That works both for and against Whalefall, however. What makes the book so effective is that every other chapter is titled after how much air Jay has left in his tank. It’s a breathless read that often has you feeling like you’re drowning with him. At just under two hours, though, Duffield’s take loses some of that frantic panic. It needed a trim to maintain that bristling pace. Worse, the frequent cutaways leave it splashing around at points. Instead of keeping our hearts pounding, the filmmaker slows things down to emphasize Jay’s internal journey with his father. That’s great for the emotional core, but it weakens the overall intensity.
The same goes for the abundance of CG, which does paint a stark contrast between the physical pieces of the whale’s belly, often grinding against each other rather than working in harmonious unity.
Pacing issues and horrendous CG aside, Whalefall takes viewers on a deep dive into terror, kept from drowning by a tear-jerking soul and Abrams’ gripping performance. If you still doubt Austin as a leading man, Whalefall should finally squash that belief. This is an edge-of-your-seat ride in the belly of a whale, made all the more compelling by a wounded Abrams giving it his all.
Here’s to the Austin Abrams having a very bad day film era.
Whalefall swims into theaters on October 16th via 20th Century Studios.
