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Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(from the 2011 South by Southwest Film Festival)

Directed by: Adam Blaiklock
Written by: Joe Velikovsky, Matt Tomaszewski and Adam Blaiklock
Starring: Ben Oxenbould, Daisy Betts, Sam Lyndon, Simon Lyndon, Leeanna Walsman, Harry Cook and Peter Phelps

Boat-locked dramas have held their place among low-budget thrillers for some time. “Dead Calm,” “Open Water” and “Donkey Punch” have proffered a variety of versions of people locked in a precarious place with nowhere to go but down.

This time, young Australian filmmaker Adam Blaiklock casts a group of fairly seasoned Australian television actors and takes them to Thailand, where cheap fish and boat charters lure thousands of similarly minded southerners each year. This team has leased a vessel called “Hedonist” for what was supposed to be a boys’ surfing trip but now consists of four guys, two girls, a skipper and his crew. The two girls are two girls too many to make this just a familiar outing of testosterone and triumph.

Seeking out perfect waves, the boarders of “Caught Inside” deliver some of the “Bra Boys” bravado and camaraderie characteristic of surf culture. When ownership of one particular break, “the Butchery” comes to blows, Bull (Ben Oxenbould) shows his colors as the big guy onboard, volatile and vicious, and his outburst signals the things to come when the subject of his interest has her eye on a different guy.

Competition for breaks and broads breeds the right kind of conflict here, and Blaiklock has managed to capture some of the brotherly violence that made “Animal Kingdom” such a scorching success. That he manages to do so while maintaining an element of reality makes matters all the more memorable, with Daisy Betts, Sam Lyndon and Oxenbould sure to cruise into foreign waters as a result. Expect “Caught Inside” to carve out a cult audience.

Many a moviemaker’s launch was born on the water, and while this doesn’t quite have the history-setting ambience of Polanski’s “Knife on the Water,” it certainly has its feet firmly planted on such a solid filmmaking foundation that Blaiklock should benefit with more commercial fare in the very near future.

“Caught Inside” catches you on the edge of your seat and holds you there for its duration. That you fully believe one man, Bull, can effectively intimidate a charismatic crew is a testament to the success of its team.

Photo courtesy South by Southwest