Director: Brett Kelly (as Scott Patrick)
Year: 2020
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Sharks
Plot:
Meeting up with her girlfriends, a woman brings along a piece of oujia board for their games but when they realize they’ve summoned the spirit of an ancient man-eating shark and loosened it upon their world she’s forced to turn to her paranormal-expert father to stop it before her friends are killed.
Review:
While objectively terribly made, this was quite fun in spots. That when approached in the right mindset, a lot of fun can be made out of the sheer lunacy of the sequences throughout here. The idea of using a ouija board to summon a killer shark which then goes on a rampage in the community forcing them to stop it is utterly insane and ridiculous in every conceivable way yet this manages to fully explore this idea quite nicely. That the goofiness starts with the scene of it getting released through the girls’ seance with it getting loose in the middle of their session is quite fun as that allows the film to get going early on and providing quite a lot to like with this setup.
This setup is quite enjoyable with the film playing off the concept of the corporeal spirit of the shark running loose and snatching people in wholly unexpected locations. Floating through the area snatching up a young couple out hiking in the woods, sneaking up on people in alleyways or chasing them through the woods manage to come off with as much logical sense as required as for why they would be attacked by a shark which not only generates a couple of decent attacks but also a lot of laughs from the outright cheesy puppet used to simulate the sharks’ appearance. These are all played quite obviously for the cheesy nature they were intended to be, making for a goofy time to be had for those that appreciate and enjoy this style.
That said, there are some issues with the film. The most obvious is the wholly cheap and ridiculous look to the film that screams low-budget indie effort. From the backyard-shot production values, simplistic sequences designed to pad out the running time or simply letting scenes play out long past their purpose which look like wholly improvised pieces of dialogue and discussion, there’s no denying how cheap this comes off. Even repeating shots or using that silly-looking puppet for the shark that looks rather clumsy and unnatural with it’s stiff and immobile appearance making it quite obvious what’s going on.
The other issue to be had here is the few series on incidental elements that tend to strip the film of some of its logical throughput. The one girl showing up to then immediately leave the group to spend time with the neighbor is pointless making her inclusion unnecessary, while the idea of what happens in the finale is severely ludicrous as well as quite underwhelming. It fits in terms of what’s going on in the story, yet it still feels rushed, unexplained and doesn’t come close to justifying what the final few scenes are trying to imply as they belong in a different movie altogether. As well, there’s no blood or gore at all as nearly all the kills are off-screen without much in the way of bloodletting which would’ve added to the campy feeling. Otherwise, this one isn’t that bad.
Overview: **.5/5
As silly and wholly goofy an effort as you would be no doubt surprised to hear based on the title/cover art alone, this is a fun watch for what it is although all the expected problems and negatives expected to be present here. Really only look at this one if you’re a hardcore fan of these micro-budget cheesy genre efforts or the most masochistic shark movie fanatics, while everyone else will not be interested in this one.
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