Director: Jack Sholder
Year: 2004
Country: South Africa
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Sharks
Plot:
Working in his beachfront town, a lifeguard finds a series of vicious animal attacks striking surfers on the beach, which could potentially be a shark running loose, joins others intent on hunting down the beast responsible that continually manages to escape capture and prey on the townspeople.
Review:
This here is an absolutely paltry and worthless effort that has almost no business being called a horror film. The biggest issue with this one is that the majority of the film's running time is devoted to aspects outside of the overarching issue of a massive shark running wild in the town’s waters. Even with a majority of the film dedicated to the knowledge that the shark is out there and attacking others since the first attack happens quite early on, the pacing here is considerably more sluggish than it could be, as the focus is on other areas about what’s going on in the town. Instead, this is more on the different people around the town trying to understand why the beast is around and whether it should be considered an emergency big enough to actually get others involved, despite the hero protesting, and rightly so, about what's going on to the oblivious folks in charge about the severity of the situation, especially after there have been several attacks.
This is a consequence of the film's origin, trying to remain true to the real-life story while also honoring the toned-down restrictions present by its broadcast style, so this one gives off a pretty boring feel during these parts. The series of typical exploits in play here regarding the city officials trying to make sure their profits are kept in check by constantly bringing up other ways the attacks could’ve happened so that there’s an excuse to keep the beaches open, which turns out to drag the film along into endless loops of him running to everyone hoping to get a different answer to his requests, which halts the plot pretty significantly. That is such a tired series of cliches that take place by this point that it’s incredibly difficult to see anything else but what’s going to happen in quick succession since it follows the rules most other genre entries have done, being all that ends up holding this one down.
There's some decent stuff here, though, when it really tries to. The biggest factor going for it is in the attacks, which remain true to the original story in stayed rooted in a more grounded, realistic style series of tactics and not going for the outlandish scenarios. Taking on several successful sequences where the shark takes out swimmers in the ocean in full view of beachgoers or the canal attack getting kids attacked by the creature so this one has several scenes of kids being attacked with effort made to show them interact with the shark prop and have a limb or body part shown in its mouth, as well as shots of their mutilated and gnawed bodily aftermath which is nicely commendable. However, even that is somewhat problematic, with the attacks being edited in such a haphazard way as to make it impossible to determine what's going on and thus not getting any thrills out of it. Overall, though, this is a really bland, banal shark horror.
Overview: **/5
Way better than it should be but still heavily flawed, there are some worthwhile factors to this one even though a lot of the issues here are big enough to lower it against these factors. Those with a curiosity about it due to its legacy, who have an appreciation for this style, or who are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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