Director: Brett Kelly
Year: 2012
Country: Canada
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Sharks
Plot:
Attempting to expose an illegal drilling facility, a group of journalism students on a supposedly abandoned island come across another group of smugglers stranded on the island by a vicious prehistoric shark released by the oil drilling nearby and must try to survive each other to get away alive.
Review:
For the most part, this one was a rather bland and uneventful effort. Among the bigger problems here is the complete lack of technical competence from nearly every aspect of the production. The editing is a huge culprit, basically being so underwhelming that the film is a complete disaster, featuring scenes that go on way too long such as the opening ten minutes spent with the girls who become shark bait or just rendering scenes so incomprehensible that it’s impossible to tell what’s happening. That is a major factor in the film where the attack, supposedly the main selling point in these films, are just so haphazard and ridiculously edited that it’s impossible to figure anything out. The attack on the students is the worst as the closeups on their body, the extremely murky water and the shaking camera combine for an atrocious scene, while a slow-motion wrestling match in the water is simply cringe-inducing and has no place in the film.
As well, the absolutely atrocious and utterly ridiculous CGI for the shark really lowers this one. The fact that every form of terrible-looking tactic for rendering unbelievable creature effects is present here makes for a really torturous time with the film, starting with the main difference here in the anatomical issues. The shark never once looks anywhere close to a real shark and is so obviously pixelated into its environment that there’s something going on with the creature as the other big issue highlights that even further. With the shark looking quite obviously fake and out of proportion to the scene, there’s a truly laughable quality to the shark attacks seeing the way the creature looks here featuring the ever-present size and dimension changes as the creature is able to literally float out of the water to grab victims in the water or just on the coastline that showcases how inaccurate the shark really is.
The main setup of the attacks here is the film’s other big problem since they’re maddeningly and woefully atrocious in most cases. Not only do the attacks here feature the troublesome setup with the size-changing shark, but there’s also the fact that these are riddled with flaws elsewhere makes them the biggest letdown in the film as the early scenes simply show the shark arriving at a spot and sucking down the victims in bloodless sequences. That later scenes are so haphazardly edited with the rapid quick-cutting that renders it hard to see but some of the attacks are just missing altogether with characters reacting to the incident without any on-screen activity, resulting in even more problems to be had with this one. Despite all that, the film is still strangely watchable with none of these factors diluting the fun pace and surprising watchability of the film with all the action against the shark, especially in the final half. Still, there isn’t much to really like elsewhere.
Overview: .5/5
Filled with plenty of technical flaws that are wholly detrimental and overwhelm the few positives here, the fact that there are any positives with this one makes for a really challenging effort to get through. Really only go for this one if you’re intrigued about it by the reputation or a true killer shark completist, while those with no interest in the style or turned off by the problems should avoid altogether.
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