Ha ha, you saw The Reef. The sequel just came out, you know. You’re not gonna leave me hanging and NOT see the sequel, are you? :)
On an unrelated note, one of my favorite movies so far this year is a horror movie called What Josiah Saw, directed by Vincent Grashaw (he previously made a movie called And Then I Go, which I need to see now) and written by a newcomer named Robert Alan Dilts. The script and direction are both rich with some wonderfully textured Texas Gothic. There are even chapters with titles like “Eli and the Gypsies”. Who doesn’t want to see a movie called What Josiah Saw, with chapters that have names like “Eli and the Gypsies” and “The Ghost of Willow Road”? Right? Well, it gets my stamp of approval and it’s got a slot on my top ten so far.
Anyway, you can’t really discuss the specific jump scare and its implications without going deep into experience-destroying spoiler territory, but there’s an absolutely fascinating jump scare that consists entirely of an audio cue and an actor responding to it. There is literally no visual onscreen component. You get jump-scared, but you have no idea what the scare actually is! And even though it happens fairly early, the significance of the moment isn’t clear until far later in the movie.
As an inveterate jump-scare hater, I’m not saying it’s a good jump scare. But I am saying it’s a fascinating one!