The title says it all in “Survive”, a fun and fittingly propulsive French feature that mixes disaster and survival thriller elements into one entertaining cocktail. Directed by Frédéric Jardin and written by Matt Alexander, “Survive” follows a stranded family of four fighting for their lives following a cataclysmic global disaster. It’s nothing you would consider strikingly original, but it remains enjoyable throughout.

“Survive” opens with some table-setting script that reads “Since its formation, the Earth has experienced five mass extinctions. The sixth is just beginning.” And just like that we get a good idea of the experience we’re in for. Jardin and Alexander don’t waste time digging into the hows and whys of the catastrophe that’s set to unfold. Instead they take a straightforward genre approach – setting the stakes, building tension, and ratcheting up the peril for a taut and fast-paced 85 minutes.

Somewhere off the coast of Puerto Rico, Cassie (Lisa Delamar), her husband Tom (Andreas Pietschmann), and their two kids Julia (Émilie Dequenne) and Ben (Lucas Ebel) are spending a few days on their mini yacht in the Caribbean Sea. After a fun evening celebrating Ben’s 13th birthday, their trip takes a terrible turn when the Earth’s poles suddenly reverse. Burning satellites begin falling from the sky and the changing currents below sends the ocean waters rushing inland.

As the winds and waves violently ravage their boat, the family is knocked out. They wake up to find what’s left of their boat grounded on a ridge of what was once the ocean floor but is now a vast desert wasteland. Obvious questions immediately come to mind that the movie never attempts to answer. Just know that the ocean now covers the mainlands presumably wiping out huge numbers of the planet’s population.

Stunned and stranded, the family now must figure out how to survive. The first thing Tom does is get the radio working. He makes contact with a fellow oceanographer named Nao (Olivier Ho Hio Hen) who was deep sea diving when the waters retreated. Nao informs them that his instruments indicate the water will come rushing back within a week’s time. Left with no other options, the family sets out on the long and arduous trek to Nao’s submersible vessel that sits miles away.

If racing against the clock wasn’t enough, their journey grows even more perilous with the sudden appearance of a creepy stranger (Arben Bajraktaraj). And then there are the thousands upon thousands of flesh-eating crabs from the deep, starving and driven mad by the oxygen. They make for an admittedly goofy yet wildly entertaining addition that speaks to the movie’s genre affections.

Jardin deserves a lot of credit for what he accomplishes with a reportedly meager budget. Shot on location in Morocco, Jardin creates vast and desolate landscapes that provide a fittingly forbidding setting which he uses to great effect. And the digital effects we get are used strategically and help ramp up the excitement. Sure, it’s all pretty silly and the character choices don’t always make sense. But the family dynamic adds some emotional stakes while the crisp pacing never lets our eyes wander from the screen.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS