Netflix’s Thrash branded ‘rip off’ of much better film, and the similarities are staggering

Despite its snappy crawl to the number one spot on Netflix, Phoebe Dynevor’s new film Thrash is dividing opinions online.

The film, written and directed by Tommy Wirkola, is a new creature feature involving a superstorm, a pregnant woman, and a town full of hungry, hungry sharks. It stars Phoebe Dynevor as the aforementioned pregnant woman, who actually gives birth mid shark attack, alongside Whitney Peak, Djimon Hounsou, and Matt Nable.

Though it’s currently number one on the film chart, the film isn’t exactly a smash hit. It’s recieved 42 per cent from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and just 25 per cent from viewers. The reviews are also very mixed, with some calling it a masterpiece and others not so much. Personally, I’ll always have time for an objectively awful shark film.

Amidst the criticisms, people clocked the striking similarities between Netflix’s Thrash and another creature feature from 2019, Crawl. Single-verb titles are apparently very popular right now.

Crawl and Thrash are very similar; there’s no denying that

If you’re not familiar, Crawl, directed by Alexandre Aja, came out just a few years ago. It starred Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper, and was about a small town assaulted by a violent hurricane – sound familiar?

Unlike Netflix’s Thrash, where bull sharks follow the flood waters into town, Crawl saw Kaya Scodelario’s professional swimmer character go head-to-head with alligators in her home’s crawl space. Lots of people get eaten, the main characters address deep-seated trauma, and it has a happy ending.

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Still, people are comparing the two on Twitter and Reddit, largely because the tone and vibes of the films feel very similar.

On Reddit, one person argued: “If you’re going to do essentially the same premise, you could at least steal the best bits of the good one. The relatable characters, the cramped environments, the gore. Thrash was one of the most cookie-cutter, bland movies I’ve seen in a long time, and I can’t believe it got greenlit when Crawl was right there doing every single thing 10x better.

“It’s almost not fair comparing the two because Alexandra Aja is just a top-tier director and I’ve enjoyed pretty much all his stuff, but it’s just crazy how much worse Thrash is.”

For their review in Cinelinx, a journalist wrote: ” Crawl was fun and engaging in ways Thrash simply can’t come close to. In fact, if you’re considering watching Thrash simply because it sounds like Crawl, but with sharks, I encourage you to just go watch Crawl again instead.”

Annoyingly, people have pointed out that the instant connections could have been avoided. There’s only so much you can do in flooded residential homes, so it’s not surprising that both films have characters climbing on kitchen units, trying to remain still to avoid detection, and people climbing on roofs to escape the water. A simple change of setting would have perhaps stopped comparisons.

Crawl has an 84 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so do with that what you will.

Thrash is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.

Featured image credit: Netflix