Melissa Barrera Sets Next Horror Movie Return With Unconventional Creature Feature

Modern scream queen Melissa Barrera has secured her next horror role, which should intrigue die-hard fans of the genre. The Scream, Abigail, and In the Heights star has multiple upcoming projects as she continues to cement herself as a Hollywood icon, allowing her to work with other rising stars and veteran A-listers, including, obviously, Courteney Cox and Neve Campbell.

Now, ᴅᴇᴀᴅline reports that Barrera has joined the new maritime horror Black Tides, starring alongside John Travolta. Directed by Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger, Die Hard 2), Black Tides will follow a father (Travolta) trying to reconnect with his daughter (Barrera) and grandson while they are out at sea, when they are attacked by a group of orcas, triggering a fight for survival.

The movie is currently filming in Gran Canaria, Spain, and director Harlin emphasized that the two leads are the backbone of the story, saying: “Melissa brings both fire and vulnerability to a role that demands it all — emotionally, physically, and cinematically. She and John are movie magic together, and they elevate every beat of this story.“

Melissa Barrera looking worried as Joey in Abigail

Black Tides will also star Travolta’s daughter, Ella Bleu Travolta, as well as Álvaro Mel and Dylan Torrell. The movie is written by Chris Sparling (Greenland) and Ángel Agudo (Apocalypse Z), and produced by Adrián Guerra and Nuria Valls under the Nostromo Pictures (Buried, Bird Box Barcelona) banner.

The premise of Black Tides sounds similar to Blake Lively’s 2016 movie The Shallows, about a surfer who is cornered in the water by a great white shark, and other horror-thrillers about people who run afoul of vicious sharks or whales and have to outsmart their attackers. Hopefully, Black Tides will thoughtfully engage with the man vs. nature narrative and be a worthy addition to Barrera’s filmography.

In addition to the legacy sequels that revived the Scream franchise, the star’s best movies include Abigail, which puts a creative spin on vampire lore as it focuses on a group of mercenaries who face off with a child vampire. Fans who want to see Barrera in similarly inventive pictures should hope for Black Tides to be a fresh survival thriller and creature feature.

Audiences may also note that Barrera’s status as a “final girl” means that her character will almost certainly survive the events of Black Tides. As the career of Melissa Barrera continues, we will hopefully see some entries that come to shape modern horror. This killer whale adventure ultimately may not be one of them, but it has at least secured a prime co-lead.