Killer Whale – Movie Review (1/5)

KILLER WHALE is a B-Horror movie about an orca, but it could also have featured a shark. In any case, it is awful in pretty much every way I can think of. Not least for someone who loves animals. Even Virginia Gardner can’t save this, and it’s sad that she ever agreed to do it. Read our full Killer Whale movie review here!

KILLER WHALE is a horror movie about an orca attack. Well, in theory. This B-Horror has a very small story, terrible use of green screen and CGI, and it isn’t even kitsch or funny, which would be the vibe that could save such a “look”.

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Also, as an animal lover, this movie is downright aggravating to watch. Instead of going full force against the SeaWorld-type business that profits from hurting orcas, it becomes about the orcas being terrifying. Doing the exact same harm that shark movies have been doing for years.

Continue reading our Killer Whale movie review below. Full disclosure: it’s not going to get any more positive.

Everyone is an idiot

As far as survival B-horror movies go, I can excuse a lot. But in Killer Whale, virtually everyone is an idiot, and if you want to go down that path, then at least use some dark comedy for your story. Instead, this is just really bad for no reason.

In Killer Whale, we meet best friends Trish (Virginia Gardner) and Maddie (Mel Jarson) traveling to Thailand, where they will end up facing an orca. One would think that shooting the movie in Thailand would mean less green screen and CGI for virtually every outdoor scene. But then one would be wrong.

The core theme of this movie is being a B-horror movie and delivering on a survival story against the “apex predator of the ocean”, which in this case is the orca. Usually, it would be a shark, as orcas are as much Free Willy and family time at SeaWorld (a concept I loathe with every fiber of my being).

However, for this movie, as already stated, people are idiots, and the orcas are fierce creatures who want to kill us.

B-movie? Yes! Gripping thriller? Not in the least.

As far as being a B-movie goes, Killer Whale has the look perfected and the lack of any decent storyline firmly in place. But when it comes to delivering on a “gripping thriller” or being a “survival” story, it lacks pretty much everything you could want.

Virginia Gardner (Fall, Halloween 2018) is the absolute star of this movie, and while I have liked her in most everything else she’s done, this is a huge miss. I know that every time she stars in anything from this point on, I will look at her IMDb page and go “Ugh!” whenever I am reminded of Killer Whale.

That’s just plain sad for someone who has had a pretty good run as far as genre titles go.

For the record, the press material also notes that “To date, there have been no fatalities involving orcas in the wild. The only four recorded fatalities have come from captive orcas.” A pretty important detail that no one who watches the movie will care about.

In that sense, it reminded me of Richard Dreyfuss being in this atrocity.

You can watch Killer Whale on digital (but you shouldn’t!)

Killer Whale is directed by Jo-Anne Brechin (Paper Champions) and co-written with Katharine McPhee (Love Is In The Air). And yes, it really hurts my female pride that women have written, directed, and starred in this awful production.

The runtime is just 86 minutes, which I would argue is about 70 minutes too long. At least!

I wanted to give this movie a rating of 0 out of 5, but my editor said no. And I agree with that, actually, as this movie needs to remain in infamy among all the other titles we’ve rated as 1 out of 5. Just know that I disliked this one even more than most of the others in the same category.

If you want a survival horror movie, then rewatch something from our “Survival” tag or any of the good shark movies instead. Hell, you could even rewatch a mediocre shark movie and have a better experience.

Killer Whale will be available in the UK on Digital Download from May 18, 2026. It is already out on digital in the US.

Details

Director: Jo-Anne Brechin
Writers: Katharine McPhee & Jo-Anne Brechin
Cast: Virigina Gardner, Melanie Jarnson, Mitchell Hope