My biggest draw for going to see “Whalefall” was its casting. I wanted to see Austin Abrams and Josh Brolin together again after working on Zach Cregger’s chilling, freaky, standout 2025 horror film, “Weapons.”
It also helped that just a month ago we saw Abrams try to survive a Raccoon City delivery run as everyman Bryan Hodukavich in Cregger’s successful take on “Resident Evil.”
The rough and tough Mitt Gardiner (Brolin), a legend in the local diving community, is diagnosed with mesothelioma and he’s decided to leave the land of the living on his own terms by plunging into the sea.
As he struggles to deal with this loss and the unfinished business with his dad, Mitt’s son, Jay (Abrams), decides to seek closure by diving for some of his dad’s remains. Despite warnings to not go into that section of the water because of unusual orca activity, Jay is determined.
The movie has great shots of the coastline along Monterey Peninsula and Monastery Beach in Carmel. It looks gorgeous but that water is cold, the drop offs are deep, and kelp is all over the place.
Jay gets tangled with the giant squid, and a sperm whale swallows both him and the squid. Jay processes his grief and reflects on the complicated relationship with Mitt while inside the whale’s digestive tract.
Based on a 2023 book by Daniel Krause, the premise has been called preposterous, outrageous, dumb and biologically dubious. The movie has drawn mixed reactions but as Simon Crook of Empire says, “Why let science get in the way of a good movie?”
Both actors are up to the task. Brolin is convincingly cast. Mitt is someone who will tease his son for having “soft lungs,” make quips about Ocean World being a fake ocean made just for commerce, and be a drill sergeant instilling diving discipline and get also wistful talking about the sea and natural world. Mr. Abrams, on the other hand, has gone from “The Walking Dead” and “Euphoria” to being Hollywood’s Scream King du jour.
This isn’t the first time director Brian Duffield has taken on a story involving a young character on their own in a story of survival horror and psychological drama — in 2023 he directed Kaitlyn Dever in “No One Will Save You.”
Sperm whales have clearly figured in film and literature — they make for powerful metaphors. Moby Dick was a sperm whale, as was the whale that swallowed Pinocchio and the Essex Whale.
Whales have represented deep wisdom, an incredible force one cannot control and an elusive obsession. They are incredibly majestic creatures who can communicate with each other and have sophisticated ways of working together.
As Mitt explains, whales contribute immensely to the ocean ecosystem just by living, swimming, eating — even whale poop contributes so much to the health of the ocean. And in death — or a “whalefall” — they bring nutrients and trap carbon from our atmosphere into the dark depths below.
One need not be swallowed by a whale to find healing and catharsis, nature (which we have so little of this big bad city) has something magical about it that is so good for our soul. And yet the powers that be push us towards data centers. That is the bigger horror, no?
I would like to see Austin Abrams in a comedy or a period piece before a tentacle of horror reels him back into the genre.
“Whalefall” is out in cinemas and in the 4DX format.