Swamp Shark (2011) by Griff E. Furst


Director: Griff E. Furst
Year: 2011
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Sharks

Plot:
When a series of attacks in their waters lead them to believe a shark is responsible and the authorities doubting the claims, a family of restaurateurs heads into the Louisiana swamps to kill it before it attacks more people.

Review:

Overall this one was a pretty decent creature feature and gets some good points to it. One of the better points here is the film taking full advantage of the situation to make for some really tense moments, as there's a couple rather fun stalking scenes in the swamps. The Louisiana bayou setting is appropriately handled with the swampy marshlands and waterways bringing about some really high-end sequences from the first encounter in the open waterways or it taking out the penned crocodiles before the drunk fisherman. There's also a couple other great scenes here taking great advantage of the setting with the attack on the partying students on the row-boat or the hunting party where the family sets out to hunt the creature out in open waters in speedboats making for some really impressive scenes.

These here set the stage for the film's two big action scenes on the attack on the partying houseboat and the rescue attempt later on as she tries to save her daughter as both scenes offer up some bloody deaths, tons of fun with the action to keep the creature at bay as well as the suspense of the creature appearing which are highly enjoyable. As well, the finale is a lot of fun as it's the main attack on the festival where it leads from an exciting chase to start off that there's some fun there, the attacks are quite bloody and action-packed while the final resolution of killing the creature makes for a good time. Lastly, unlike how most of these usually are, the shark actually looks really good and has some scenes where it's a full-live shark, prop and not CGI, although the CGI here does look better than expected but can't compare to how good the shark-prop looks.

These here are enough to make-up for it's one weak area is that there's not a lot of actual shark attacks going on, and while it's not noticeable to the plot or pacing, it does lower the gore quotient somewhat since there's not a whole lot of attacks in here. It doesn't have that many attack scenes to really ramp up that factor regardless of graphic the few ones are, but this isn't enough to truly deter this one fully.


Overview: **** 1/2/5
One of the more consistently enjoyable and exciting SyFy Channel efforts, this one has plenty of solid elements and wholly worthwhile positives that it remains one of the shining examples of their output overall. Really give this one a shot if you're into these types of creature features or are interested in the better end of their output, while those who aren't a fan of them should heed caution.

Comments