Whalefall Review: Austin Abrams Cements Scream King Status in Gripping, Surprisingly Touching Survival Horror
Brian Duffield (No One Will Save You) reunites Abrams with his Weapons co-star Josh Brolin in the actor’s second survival horror blockbuster in less than a month after Resident Evil
by Violet de la Torre 14 October 2026
20th Century Studios
Survival horror is experiencing a creative renaissance, moving beyond typical creature features into high-concept, deeply psychological endurance tests. Modern audiences want their visceral thrills combined with emotional stakes, and the ambitious new film from No One Will Save You director Brian Duffield — leaning more towards A Quiet Place than the Fall series — satisfies that craving. Grounded in a father-son drama superbly acted by Austin Abrams and Josh Brolin, Whalefall is a masterclass in claustrophobic survival horror that trades monster clichés for breathtaking spectacle and profound heart.
With Duffield and his co-writer Daniel Kraus adapting Kraus's acclaimed novel of the same name, Whalefall follows Jay Gardiner (Abrams), a scuba diver on a personal mission to recover the remains of his recently deceased father, Mitt (Josh Brolin), in the Pacific Ocean off the Californian coast. But the search turns into a desperate fight for survival when an 85-foot, 60-ton sperm whale swallows Jay whole. Trapped deep inside its digestive system, Jay is up against a ticking clock with just one hour of breathable air to figure out an escape before suffocating.
20th Century Studios
After balancing horror and comedy in two back-to-back projects with Zach Cregger (Weapons and Resident Evil), Austin Abrams avoids being typecast by delivering a gruelling performance with serious emotional heft. As proven by last month’s Resident Evil, another thriller that features him with no scene partner for the majority of the runtime, Abrams’ offbeat charisma and comedy chops are strong enough to propel an entire film. Here, he likewise carries the movie despite the more sombre tone, although he does have an important partner in Brolin’s Mitt Garinder, who Jay sees through flashbacks and hallucinations.
It is through that relationship that Duffield and Kraus successfully capture the heart of the novel. The father-son dynamic is emotionally rich, and Brolin commands the screen in every one of his scenes, doing justice to the seismic presence of the character in the book.
20th Century Studios
As much as it excels as a family drama, Whalefall is a uniquely gripping survival horror film, a feat achieved through the jaw-dropping practical effects. Rather than relying on heavy green screen, the production prioritised massive practical whale builds by Wētā Workshop and StudioArt & Technology, including an 18-foot animatronic whale head with an underwater-moving tongue and full-scale silicone stomach rigs animated by seven puppeteers. The creative lighting solutions, like motion-activated LED rope lighting, realistically mimic stomach bioluminescence, and the VFX enhancements are subtle rather than corny.
Aside from the extraordinary practical craft on display, what sets Whalefall apart is its subversion of monster movie tropes by capturing the gargantuan whale with wonder and sympathy — but it doesn’t make the creature any less menacing, nor the survival horror any less visceral.
A deeply moving entry in the survival horror genre, Whalefall balances claustrophobic dread with equally intense familial drama.
Whalefall is playing in US and UK cinemas from this Friday, October 16th.