Blackfish review

A scary but sensitive documentary

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It's saying something that the huge whale cock on display isn’t the most shocking thing about Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s scary but sensitive doc.

Presented as the real-life stuff of murder-mysteries, the three deaths caused by SeaWorld’s Tilikum the killer whale horrify.

But Cowperthwaite dives deeper, unravelling the shocking thesis that captivity’s multiple traumas may have made Tilly a monster.

Like a more obvious underwater twist on Herzog’s Grizzly Man, Blackfish presents a persuasive, passionate argument: wild nature’s right to freedom demands respect, cock and all.

Freelance writer

Kevin Harley is a freelance journalist with bylines at Total Film, Radio Times, The List, and others, specializing in film and music coverage. He can most commonly be found writing movie reviews and previews at 12DOVE.