Director: Danny Lerner
Year: 2003
Country: USA/Bulgaria
Alternate Titles: Shark Attack 4: Shark Zone
Genre: Sharks
Plot:
When the local business magnate of a small town discovers an ancient wreck bearing diamonds and other jewels under the sea, he enlists a diver to help him retrieve them only to have their guardian sharks get loose and prey upon others on the water, forcing them to take the creatures out.
Review:
This one could've been much better than it is because the opportunities to be that good were easily apparent but is overall too flawed to really move up the list more. The main problem is the plotline, which is essentially two films in one and neither one is all that impressive even if one of them could’ve been much more fun if it had more room to grow. These two stories, the jewel-recovery and then the rampaging sharks, aren’t so bad on their own whereas the jewel-recovery is just boring and feels tacked on for no reason. That becomes obvious throughout here as far too much time is spent on the nefarious businessman attempting to sway the authorities to get him to go diving in the water to retrieve the sunken jewels at the bottom of the ocean and especially when that's the finale of the film after everything else is about forcing him into action to do so. This is really boring and not the wrong feeling you want in a killer shark film which ends up dragging this one down accordingly.
Outside of this, though, only the rampaging sharks one works because it provides lots of cheesy fun to be had. With the creature attacks being featured often enough in the first half to keep the action going as we get several big encounters including the massacre of the diving team to open the film, a fine beach attack that shows the creatures plucking swimmers and surfers out of the water and devouring them, a later sequence where they rampage through the security team assigned to catch them inside of shark-proof cages, and the finale inside the sunken ship, there are some generally fun elements at play here. As the cheesiness of these scenes is accomplished with the live-action, real-sea footage intercut with the prosthetic shark head for an immensely jarring effect and plenty of gore due to the number of attacks, there are some highly likable factors to give this some worthwhile factors.
Overview: ***/5
A highly enjoyable cheesy shark film undone by its secondary plotline, this really could’ve been kept to just the singular entry involving the sharks terrorizing the beach-side community as that’s where the film's worthwhile elements are from. Those that appreciate this genre or are curious about it should be the main ones here while most others should heed caution if not outright avoid it.
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