No matter what horrors we can cook up with special effects makeup, the ocean will always remain one of the most terrifying real-life things horror filmmakers can explore. And usually when they do, it’s got something to do with sharks — as is the case with Chum, a new aquatic thriller that FANGORIA has an exclusive sneak peek of before it hits screens this week.
Directed by Jonathan Zuck from a screenplay he wrote with Dick Grunert, Chum stars Alice Eve, Eric Michael Cole, Elle Haymond, Sarah Siadat, Johnny Gaffney, Lisa Yaro, and Jim Klock. The film’s synopsis is as follows:
A dream destination wedding in Malta explodes into chaos when a bloodthirsty shark attacks and a sinister fisherman with a hidden agenda turns the celebration into a deadly trap. Forced between open water and a relentless human predator, the wedding party must fight for survival as secrets surface and loyalties shatter. As the newlyweds are pushed to their limits, they’re forced to confront the cracks in their relationship to determine who lives, who dies and who stays married.
In our exclusive clip, the wedding guests are tied up on a boat with a fisherman not dissimilar to Jai Courtney’s Tucker in Dangerous Animals, manning the levers of a shark cage as it descends below the surface. In it stands a trapped young woman who — despite the fact that she’s perfectly safe inside a structure specifically built to protect her from large sea creatures — is busy screaming in terror at a great white nosing up against the cage. She’s pulled out before anything can happen, but right as it looks like salvation’s approaching, she’s dunked right back in.
Chum is produced by Eve, Eamon O’Rourke, Lucas Jarach, Luke Daniels, Ryan R. Johnson, and Kurt Fethke. The film is one of several shark attack thrillers to hit our screens this year, as it seems that despite Jaws turning fifty, we’re no farther away from putting the great predators of the deep at the center of our aquatic horror films. 2026 has already graced us with two, the Netflix thriller Thrash and Renny Harlin’s Deep Water, but don’t worry about the safety of your beach vacation — sharks don’t care about us as much as the movies make you think.
Chum hits theaters and VOD on June 5.
