The hubby and I kicked off the summer early with four shark flicks. Well, more like I subjected him to four shark flicks whether he liked them or not. So did he? Did I? Let’s find out.
INTO THE DEEP (2025)
This is a pretty basic shark movie, but it definitely made for a simple, cheap thrills ride for the hubby and me. Plus, it has Richard Dreyfuss still giving nods to his career changing role in Jaws, and horror queen Scout Taylor-Compton in the leading role.
In a pretty nasty opening sequence, a younger version of Scout and her mother watch from a boat as her father is gobbled up by a shark. This movie has a few pretty great scenes in which we see the shark mouth actually chomping off a limb. Ouch.
The “elevated” part of this movie is that adult Scout is still suffering PTSD and has to face her fears with flashback help from her motivational grandfather—Richard Dreyfuss. It’s all a little too hokey for someone like me who’s over meaningful shit and is just in it for the shark attacks.
Thankfully, we get plenty of those. Scout, her man, and some friends go out boating, get boat-jacked by pirates, and are forced to dive down deep to rescue the pirates’ treasure.
Like I said, it’s all totally basic, and it just gives everyone a reason to end up in the water at one point or another in between fighting each other. The shark attacks are good, and that’s all that really matters.
Keep an eye out during the closing credits, where Richard Dreyfuss does a PSA about the importance of sharks to remind us that they are truly misunderstood due to movies like the one he just starred in.
SHARK WARNING! (2024)
This would have been a total SyFy extravaganza fifteen years ago. It checks off all the boxes—unintentionally campy acting, an inconsistently sized CGI shark, a recycled plot, and most importantly, a recognizable face from like 30 years ago.
In this case, David Chokachi of Baywatch is that face. A dude has come back to a fishing town 20 years after his little brother was eaten by a shark. Chokachi, his uncle, was supposed to be watching them and fucked up, so the main dude has a beef with him.
Meanwhile, the fishing town has suffered a shortage of fish for years, which doesn’t bode well for the upcoming fishing tournament. So…the evil mayor tells one of her henchmen to go blow a hole in the nearby damn to let the fish flood in.
Naturally, the shark swims through, too. This is where things get goofy and funny. For whatever reason, one fisherman after another tries to go out on a paddle boat to kill this giant shark…with a manual harpoon spear. Not even a harpoon gun. And in two case, the fisherman ends up killing himself accidentally! SyFy gold, I tell you.
All the main players end up on boats at the end trying to take down the shark—which, by the way, is supposed to be the same shark from twenty years ago. I love that this movie borrows generously from the worst of the Jaws movies. The mayor gets the best bad monologue, and the shark even growls at the end. Jawesome.
SHARK EVIL (2023)
This 76-minute Asian shark flick is totally about the visually artsy presentations of the massive, CGI shark leaping out of the water in various ways and snatching people right off boats.
The shark is quite menacing and is covered in battle scars that make it clear he’s seen some things. In the great opening sequence, he takes out a handful of fishermen with the help from a little friend. It’s campy and awesome. It also briefly totally steals from the score to Jaws.
Next we meet a group of pretty young people. They go out on a yacht. Within the first 35 minutes of the movie, all of them get devoured except the two final girls.
They end up stuck on the boat of the dead fishermen and have to figure out a way to get the malfunctioning propeller going again.
Simple. Straightforward. Sick looking shark. This one was quite satisfying.
NIGHTMARE SHARK (2018)
Okay. I was getting desperate to keep a shark weekend going. This flick about shark attack survivors suffering from nightmares about a monstrous shark creature actually features characters from other SyFy shark movies, which is clever.
At first, I was feeling the absurdity. Each survivor has nightmares that are right out of Elm Street…with a shark. Shark fins pop up on the street.
Shark fin in the tub. Shark swimming outside a window.
So, these survivors go to a house in the woods for therapy with some quack who gives them pills that are supposed to keep them from dreaming.
It appears blocking their dreams causes waking nightmares. It’s a hot mess as the shark terrorizes them, and there aren’t really any good attacks or kills, but the shark is definitely nightmarish.
