Killer Whale (2026) Review – A Green Screen Disaster

Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we are reviewing the action horror movie Killer Whale (2026). Before we start, if you are looking for answer for this movie’s slightly convoluted ending, check out our Killer Whale (2026) Ending Explained. That article contains spoilers, unlike this review.

Fun in the Sun… Until The Killer Whale Shows Up

What better time than winter for a movie that features sun, sand, and the glorious blue sea? Most of us in the north are freezing our asses off so it makes for some welcome respite from the cold. Today’s review is going to answer a simple question: who will enjoy Killer Whale, the new January creature feature? Short answer? Nobody… Well, perhaps people with an affinity for low quality film-making and awful CGI.

Unfortunately, we aren’t going to be basking in the warm glow of the sun and enjoying the bikini-clad people watching today. We are going to be assaulted by a terrible looking CGI Orca and an even more egregious green screen.

“Today’s review is going to answer a simple question: who will enjoy Killer Whale, the new January creature feature? Short answer? Nobody… Well, perhaps people with an affinity for low quality film-making and awful CGI. “

Killer Whale is set to continue that annual tradition of terrible creature features releasing in the first quarter of the year. In 2024 we had the incredibly dull No Way Up and in 2025 we had the laughable Into The Deep. Honestly, today’s movie might be the worst of the bunch.

The story follows Maddie (Virginia Gardner), an orca obsessed woman who recently lost her boyfriend to a horrifying robbery. Hoping to take her mind off things, her friend Trish (Mel Jarnson) convinces her to join her on a girl’s vacation. While there, they break into a sea park to visit a Killer Whale with a history of murder. Little do they realise, it won’t be long before they are getting even more up close and personal with it.

It’s the usual formula but somehow worse

I’m sure you know what to expect here; if you have seen one seasploitation film you have seen them all. These movies all tend to follow a very similar formula. They typically start off with some character drama that’s firmly rooted on dry land. This is there purely to establish the protagonists and make you root for them.

“For the most part, the species shift doesn’t change things up all that much. This is your standard creature feature stuff, only with a bent dorsal fin and a higher score in the killer animal IQ test.”

Said characters then head out on holiday where they grab a boat or jet ski and make their way out to sea as far from land as possible. When they are away from land, they end up in the drink and that’s when the action element comes in. Sure, they can differ a little here and there but that’s the basic outline. Killer Whale is absolutely no different. The main thing that separates it from the usual sea-based creature fare is the fact that this is an Orca not a shark.

Killer Whales have played antagonist in horror before – Orca (1977), made as something of an answer to Jaws, is the big one. It’s still a fairly fresh concept, though. The Killer Whale enjoys a favourable reputation as something of an affable marine mammal that would never hurt a human. Writers Jo-Anne Brechin and Katharine McPhee address this by reminding us that this is a formerly captive orca. They have an entirely more tarnished reputation.

For the most part, the species shift doesn’t change things up all that much. This is your standard creature feature stuff, only with a bent dorsal fin and a higher score in the killer animal IQ test. Expect to see our antagonist here use some of the orca tricks you will have seen on nature shows. Beaching to bite a leg… Well, actually, there isn’t much of anything because this is a tiny cast. The kill count is disappointingly low. That’s only one of this movie’s many, many problems, though.

Problems? Let’s start at the top…

The first thing you will notice here is the terrible camera work. Killer Whale looks fiendishly amateur. Most of these terrible aquatic killer movies are made by Asylum who tend to hire capable camera crews. They are nowhere to be found here so that isn’t the case; the shot is spasmodic, cinematography is basic, and the direction feels like that of a very inexperienced hand. Who’d have thought Jo-Anne Brechin had been sitting in the director’s chair for over a decade? Not me.

The script stands out like a seal silhouetted against the water’s surface, too. It’s incredibly remedial and clunky thanks to the need to expound on the plot every single second the characters aren’t screaming. There’s a ton of foreshadowing here that is impossible to ignore. I think Virginia Gardner is a brilliant actor so she makes a lot of the poor scripting work but it’s still a problem. She deserves far better than this.

“The script stands out like a seal silhouetted against the water’s surface, too. It’s incredibly remedial and clunky thanks to the need to expound on the plot every single second the characters aren’t screaming.”

Aside from how silly the plot is, it’s the actual scenes in the water that deserve the majority of the criticism. This movie has been almost entirely made in front of a green screen. It looks hideous. Character’s hair has an eerie outline glow, the depth on most shots is horrifying, and it looks every bit like a low budget film venturing into waters it simply should stay away from. It’s the most glaring example of this technique that I have ever seen in a seasploitation film.

There’s no way this should have made it out of the first test screening. The CGI looks terrible, too. It’s not quite bottom of the barrel but the Orca has that distinct sense of being a video game asset in a real world environment. It lacks shadows and weight.

It’s just so boring, too

On top of those issues, Killer Whale is just such a boring movie. Like I mentioned earlier, this is a tiny cast. When the whale shit hits the fan there’s only three people in any peril. The vast majority of the movie consists of characters chatting on a rock in very minimal danger. I am fairly sure Brechin was aware that this doesn’t make for much entertainment.

Rather than rectify that with more action though, we instead get numerous shots of the characters in the most bizarre positions with the camera pointed right at their asses. It’s like something from an ecchi anime. There is a minor plot twist towards the end of the movie but that’s only met with more abysmal writing. It will have you scratching your head because it, and the character’s reaction to it, are nonsensical.

It’s a brutally slow movie with very little to grasp onto. The 90 minute runtime feels like a real chore. Virginia Gardner is fantastic, she should be starring in great movies, not this rotten chum. Mel Jarnson is decent too. Both women do great with the physical demands of the shoot, too. Other than that, give Killer Whale a miss and stay the hell out of the water.

Our Scoring Philosophy: A Fair Fight

Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.

A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.

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