Year: 1977
Country: Mexico
Alternate Titles: ¡Tintorera!; Tintorera... Bloody Waters; Tintorera... Tiger Shark
Genre: Sharks
Plot:
Finding himself stuck in Mexico, a playboy is able to heal up before going back out to the beach after his long-time rival, but soon after they decide to meld together to be able to help themselves more a recent spate of Tiger Shark sightings prompt them to hunt down the shark and help out with the area.
Review:
This one here does have some good moments. Most of this is taken up with the real reason for the film which is the shark attack scenes that sit very nicely into the sex-on-the-beach backdrop and feel realistic when they're pulled off. While relying on tried and tested sleight-of-hand style trickery, the attack scenes are not only extremely bloody but remarkably well-staged and mix together with genuine shark footage and excellent underwater photography, they are actually quite convincing. The main one that kick-starts the film's last half is an excellent sequence, as it's a tightly handled, exciting set-piece that plays off wonderfully and contains the most shocking moment in the film, where the shark attacks two surfers in the water and bites off a leg, leading to a mad rush to shore with the still-bleeding victim leaving behind a massive amount of blood in the water. Then the shark turns back and attacks the fleeing troop, taking the victim away in an even more massive blood cloud than before. It's a brutal scene and is handled expertly, becoming the film's non-nudity highlight and a great reason to give this one a viewing.
The other likable aspect here is the rather enormous helping of nudity in the film. This one has plenty of women in various states of undress, including full nudity from some as well as some really exciting sexual encounters from all parties involved, from threesomes to mixed versions and plenty of other forms of action. That the first hour to this one is essentially a competition between the two to figure out who can score with more helps in this regard, and while not a whole lot is really that explicit, but the fact that it features a lot of nudity will certainly please. There's also a lot of really great underwater scenes in here, as the snorkeling scenes and the hunts for the shark at least look rather interesting from time to time. Even the travelogue footage of the islands aren't that bad and make it look like a fun destination, especially the tourist shots of the group going around to visit the temple ruins or simply traveling around the various spots of the resort with the tropical beaches on display, which are what hold this one up.
This one here does have a whole lot wrong. The biggest flaw in the film is the fact that this is a thinly-veiled gay love story set against the backdrop of the wild animal kingdom. The fact that the real story here is the relationship between the two star-crossed perverts who find one another really comes out on the wrong end due to the fact that so much time is spent with this storyline that it really becomes more like a relationship drama than a shark film. It’s not that the segments are all that bad, but that so much of it happens in the film that it becomes aggravating at several points. This also has the extra flaw in exposing the fact that there isn't a whole lot of shark action in the film at all, leaving most of it to the end of the film and making the beginning completely dull and lifeless. This really should've been trimmed up by a large margin, as there's no real reason why a film with this little shark action to take this long to get through. Several of the sexual shenanigans are a little hard to believe, such as the love triangle that happens, or the fact that they actually agree to share women together is a little hard to believe, slowly this one significantly.
As well, there’s also the fact that there's a large number of actual animal deaths in the film. They kill about a dozen sharks in this movie on-screen, in long, sustained takes which show every detail. This isn't all that fun or easy to watch, especially the huge massacre scene where dozens upon dozens are slaughtered and is an obstacle in itself to get over without the other features. Regardless of the fact that in storyline terms, these are carried out as a form of revenge for the shark attacking their friend but the on-screen action is entirely impossible to get by behind which just makes this far crueler and unnecessary than it should’ve been The last flaw is that it is also hamstrung by the fact that the dialog switches constantly and rapidly from English to Spanish. These make it hard to understand and lower the film somewhat significantly.
Overview: **/5
As a hedonistic travelogue of the countryside, it's not bad, but as a killer shark movie, it's too long without enough shark action that really becomes problematic with so much of the time spent doing other factors. See this only for the rampant nudity or beautiful scenery on display, while killer shark fans should look elsewhere with so much time spent away from doing what it should focus on even if those aspects are rather fun here.
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