Up from the Depths (1979) by Charles B. Griffith

Director: Charles B. Griffith
Year: 1979
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Sharks

Plot:
After a strange series of incidents, the owner of a Hawaiian tourist resort tries to downplay the incidents especially when he finds a local swindler trying to stop the resort’s activities, but as the attacks by a released shark get more destructive he’s forced to rely on his help to stop the deadly creature.

Review:

On the whole, this one was a highly disappointing effort. Among the better features here is that there’s a somewhat enjoyable setup here to get the shark released on the community. The opening footage of the underwater earthquake and the resulting off-screen attack with the blood-cloud floating to the surface is a fine start to things, while the resort’s imminent missing person’s investigation alongside the various sea creatures coming ashore and wrecking the guests’ time. As well, the sneak shots of the fins swimming through the ocean or flash attacks happening to the staff at the resort do a decent job of building up a potential threat in the waters.

As well, when the shark-creature appears this one gets rather enjoyable. The first attack on the pearl smugglers has some decent underwater stalking scenes before the expected blood cloud emerges, while the centerpiece scenes of the shark attacking the resort are a lot of fun. Smashing the transport boat to snap up the persons onboard is a fine way to go into the creatures’ attack on the guests on the beach in full view of everyone causing massive panic to erupt in the race to get to shore, giving this one some solid action. Some of the attacks to catch the shark by having the locals go out after it only to hilariously fail provides some laughs, and with these taking place with a real shark prop, give this some positives.

There are a few problems here. The main problem is the film’s utter boredom for the majority of the first half as it tends to focus on extremely uninteresting storylines that do nothing for the film. Focusing on the relationship of the three main characters involved around the resort, from the owner to his assistant who’s romantically involved with the swindler trying to peddle the sight-seeing tours around the hotel property for a vast majority of the first half is just boring to get through. That carries over into the different sketches shown of the various guests going around trying to enjoy life around the resort which isn’t any better, leaving this one incredibly bland and dull to get going.

The other issue here is the completely unnecessary setup of the useless cliches presented here. The most obvious one here is the lame reasoning to keep the resort open as the manager continually keeps it going merely for monetary gain despite ample evidence there’s something going on with the missing staff and guests. Even after realizing the creature's out there with his presence during an attack, the decision to keep the resort open and offer up a reward for it tends to sit uneasily here in being a realistic scenario. The last complaint is a wholly rushed and underwhelming ending, where the build-up to this great fight with the creature is over quickly and suddenly, taking the sting out of it somewhat and being the film’s main flaws.

Overview: *.5/5

A generally bland and somewhat boring killer shark film, there's very little worthwhile about this one that manages to keep the film relegated more to the bottom rungs of the genre. Those who are more interested in the general style and approach attempted here will probably be the most likely group to enjoy this one while most others should stick to other genre entries first before attempting this one.