Did you know that a women dies from domestic violence in Australia every week? It’s a shocking statistic that inspired writer/director Andrew Traucki to use a shark attack as a metaphor for the insidious nature of domestic violence.

Set in the tranquil waters of the South Pacific Ocean, four girls embark on a kayaking trip to calm their minds following a shocking death; only to have a Great White Shark interrupt their journey, turning their adventure into one of survival. The Reef: Stalked is a follow up to writer/director Andrew Traucki’s shark attack film in 2010 simply titled The Reef. He was adamant that he didn’t want to create The Reef 2. It had to be a new film. Andrew spoke to Creative Screenwriting Magazine about his love of scaring the living daylights out of his audience.

“If I can sit in a theater and ask myself what I would do in that situation, I really get a buzz out of that,” confessed Traucki of his attraction to the survival genre. The innate thriller aspect of his films also relies on the audience wanting to know what happens next more than watching a relentless gorefest. It is about suggestion more than revelation. The terror of a shark lies in the fact that’s it’s there and you don’t know if or when it might attacked.

Andrew Traucki

Andrew Traucki doesn’t churn out films regularly, but he likes to keep them in the same genre wheelhouse. As such, he wants his audiences to consider both Reef films as standalone movies rather than sequels. “I wanted The Reef: Stalked to be a different film than Reef. I wanted it to be more of an elevated thriller with more character relationships than pure horror action.” He believes pure horror caters to the more primitive elements of human fear and has its place on the screens. “There is more gore and things get a little bit nastier in horror, whereas thriller plays more to the mystery and suspense aspects of the story. They’re genre cousins.”

A good horror contains some thriller and a good thriller contains some horror

The main character in The Reef: Stalked is Nic (Teressa Liane) who is suffering post traumatic stress after witnessing the death of her older sister Cath. “She began as a confident person who sinks into the world of PTSD,” he continued. Traucki added the original incarnations of Nic had her written as “too intense and too neurotic. She was a lot more damaged and couldn’t handle the world.” She was difficult to like and empathize with as a character, so she was pared back. Much of her character was modified in the edit suite. During the film, Nic’s trauma was depicted through a series of carefully-selected flashbacks of Cath being murdered. She was overwhelmed and needed to escape. “I wanted to show that it was Nic’s pain rather than the pain of the event.”

Aside from unprocessed trauma, the writer/director wanted to explore the insidious nature of domestic violence, grief, and loss his film. Rather than being didactic or implying shock tactics, Traucki prefers that The Reef: Stalked is more of a conversation starter to raise awareness of domestic violence. He referred to a play he watched in a tiny theater about domestic violence and he wanted to amplify that message. The play was the impetus for The Reef: Stalked.

Another theme Andrew Traucki wanted to explore was that of collaboration. The four girls on the kayaking adventure could only survive the shark attack if they put aside their differences and worked together. The cold-blooded monster lurking in the depths of the ocean sporadically taking a victim is a perfect metaphor for domestic violence and the need for support to overcome it.

By design, a contained thriller is restricted to a single (or minimal) main location with a limited number of characters bouncing off each other. Ironically, The Reef: Stalked is set in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean rather than some claustrophobic space. Traucki examines the containment through characters trapped in a kayak. “In terms of the psychology of the characters, I want to be in there with them. I want to make the viewer another character in the movie rather than an observer. Occasionally, you need to expand out if the film becomes too claustrophobic.” Part of the dance of such films is balancing the momentum of the story with the quieter, deliberative moments of the characters.

Annie (Saskia Archer), Jodie (Ann Truong), Lisa (Kate Lister) & Nic (Teressa Liane)

Aside from maintaining forward movement in the story, Traucki focuses on several tones during the writing process:

• action
• suspense
• intimacy
• relationship

“No movie can constantly be one of these things. Even in big action movies, the audiences needs those quieter moments to normalize, relax, and get back into the story. It’s like a symphony where the conductor brings in certain instruments at different times. They can’t all be playing all at once.” Andrew wrote his first draft of The Reef: Stalked in three months, and then spent another nine months rewriting and polishing it. He quickly wrote all the shark action scenes early on, many of which remained. He focused on the character relationships during the subsequent drafts.

The third act gave Traucki particular challenges. Although the characters earned themselves some respite from the shark, they had given up in case it returned. And return it did. With a vengeance.

Four Girls And A Kayak

“If you don’t have likeable, interesting characters, you don’t have a film,” Traucki said. “It all starts with Nic, the main character and watch how she reacts to everything.” Nic’s younger sister Annie (Saskia Archer) was in constant sibling rivalry with her. Traucki refers to them as the inner ring. The outer ring was comprised of Jodie (Ann Truong) and Lisa (Kate Lister). Lisa added levity and fun to the adventure while Jodie was the earnest professional.

The key journey in each of these characters is their changing levels of confidence. “Nic starts off confident, crumbles, and regains her confidence. Annie starts out as an indoor person who gains the confidence and bravery to get things done. Jodi goes from being the alpha to crumbling. Kate has the least journey.” Naturally, Nic has the most compelling journey since she’s the main character.

Paradoxically, Andrew Traucki also likes writing comedy, despite his movies mainly centering on the darker aspects of humanity. He likens his influences to David Lynch, specifically the film Blue Velvet. He also gravitates towards the Russian writers with a deeply pessimistic outlook on life.