What a year Austin Abrams is having. Last seen being set upon by zombies in Resident Evil, now he’s gone and got himself swallowed by a sperm whale. The guy really cannot catch a break. Directed by Brian Duffield (No One Will Save You), Whalefall is a daft-as-a-brush yet simultaneously po-faced survival thriller that’s like 127 Hours meets the Pinocchio Monstro scene. Abrams is Jay, the disappointing son of a dead father. We see his dad Mitt (Josh Brolin) taking his own life at the outset, with this terminally ill man plunging himself into the sea, desperate to escape a fate of hospitalisation.

Jay is haunted by his father’s death and sets out to recover the body. During his efforts, he is swallowed alive by the aforementioned marine mammal as he tangles with a giant squid, and must somehow find a way to be freed. As Jay gets to grips with his daddy issues in the belly of the beast, the narrative can be somewhat trite, building to a cringing and overly contrived conclusion. But Abrams is excellent, investing his performance with real intensity and angst, and Brolin is a suitably stubborn and overbearing presence in the film’s numerous flashbacks.

Whalefall is a technical triumph, with its immersive underwater soundscape combining with a stirring orchestral score to plunge you further into Jay’s uniquely stressful predicament, while the production design adds about as much plausibility as possible, through its cramped, slimy and squelchy sets which feel grimly and grossly real. It can, however, be visually and audibly incoherent, given the tight spaces in which the frantic action unfolds, and the fact that his breathing apparatus muffles Jay’s speech. The film might feel like a bit of an emotional dud, but it is often a properly out-there cinematic experience that makes the most of the modern medium’s immersive, eye-popping potential. See it on the biggest screen possible.

Whalefall is in cinemas from Friday 16 October.