47 Meters Down: Uncaged and Uncolonized- Challenging Colonial Rhetoric & Spaces in the Shark Horror Film 47 Meters Down: Uncaged

47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019) is the indirect sequel to 47 Meters Down (2017) and follows four American teenage girls as they cave dive in a flooded Mayan temple and catacomb that, unbeknownst to them, houses (at least) two ancient, blind sharks who attack the girls as they attempt to escape the caves. Through a comparative analysis of 47 Meters Down: Uncaged in relation to both animal horror films and archaeological adventure films, I explore the ways that the film essentially punishes us for assuming that the humans are the protagonists and the sharks the villains. By reading the film in the lens of Said’s work on Orientalism, I argue that the sharks function as signifiers of the Mayans and that their defense of a sacred space is justified against the human characters who are essentially imperial invaders seeking to plunder their home.