Director: Mark Polonia
Year: 2022
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Sharks; Vampire
Plot:
Arriving in a rural New England town, a group of friends intending to work a summer intern shift begin to suspect something might be off with their boss but realize soon enough of his past legacy of terror and connection to a massive shark living in the water forcing them to team up with a local to stop them.
Review:
There's very little to hide this as a schlocky, cheesy shark film. What really gives it this feel is the over-the-top setup that manages to feature some rather bizarre concepts here. The whole idea of Dracula the vampire corrupting the shark and passing his curse to it in order to continue his legacy undiscovered throughout the ages works well in that regard, much like the atmosphere of the town with all the rules and regulations for keeping activity unmonitored. As it gradually becomes unveiled about the cult protecting everything while participating in the rituals sacrificing townspeople to the shark makes for an enjoyably cheesy suspenseful mystery.
As well, in a film like this, there's quite a lot of equally goofy shark action. Not even taking into account the design of the creature with the vampire head and bat wings stuck to the side, the sight of it walking out of the water to eat the sacrifice victims, or the ambush on the couple in the broken-down car gives this the perfect setup. That carries over into the silly finale where they concoct the fake ceremony to distract the shark and take it out before leading into the series of encounters with the main vampire which has a goofy tone and feel to give this a fun finish. These factors are what make for a nice and cheesy genre effort.
This one doesn't have much really wrong with it beyond many of the expected elements here. The special effects are charmingly cheesy, with an obviously cheesy and wholly unrealistic puppet that's always clumsily superimposed on-screen with little regard for its size or dimensions. The effects here, from the gore to the setting and even the burning shark prop as well as the CGI insert shots throughout here, all offer up the kind of cheesy nature that's based on how ludicrously they're portrayed. The setup here being so obviously set towards something going on in town yet no one believes the lies about what's going on which is highly unbelievable which are the expected flaws here.
Overview: ***/5
An obviously low-budget schlocky shark film, that this one is great at being a silly creature feature is what will determine the target audience for this one. Viewers with a taste for that kind of material or are fans of the creative crew will like this one the most while those that aren't fans of either should heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment