Shark Night

Starring: Sara Paxton, Dustin Millgan, Chris Carmack, Katharine McPhee, Joel David Moore, Donal Logue, Joshua Leonard, Sinqua Walls, Alyssa Diaz, Chris Zylka
Directed by: David R. Ellis
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Horror, Thriller
2011

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Seven vacationing college students find their party shattered when they begin to be hunted by sharks in the bayou.

Review:

Tim: I skipped over Shark Night in 2011 for obvious reasons. It just looked awful. 9 years later, I randomly sat down to watch it. My younger self was correct, this is not a movie that's worth seeing. I like shark movies, but this one is so pitiful that there's so little to enjoy here. It's plain and simple an especially bad movie.

It starts like most horror movies. You get introduced to a bunch of thinly written characters. The movie itself doesn't really care about them, they get enough details just so you can barely differentiate one from another. They're going to a party and don't have many cares (besides the hidden secrets in a few that the movie thinks gives them complexity). The partying starts and quickly turns to horror as a shark shows up and starts eating people, one-by-one. It's all so generic and paint-by-numbers. There's a ton of problems up to this point, including the fact that you don't care about any of the characters and they start dying so predictably.

The story throws an unexpected twist to the idea of "why are these sharks in Louisiana?" I guess the movie gets a minimal amount of credit for trying to tell a different story to the typical shark movie one. The bigger problem is that this new twist is utterly stupid. I tried to even understand what it was and why we should care, but there's not much there. It's a bad idea that is poorly executed. It serves no purpose other than an attempt to introduce a few additional sharks and to give our protagonists another adversary. The problem is it's just so unbelievable and not compelling in the least.

As you might expect, the cast is pretty awful. Sara Paxton didn't do a single thing that was believable or authentic. Her performance routinely hit the wrong notes. She was awful. Dustin Milligan was decent, at least in regards to B-level horror movie acting. I like Chris Carmack from his later work on "Grey's Anatomy", so it was fun to see him here. This is a probably a performance he regrets more than anything else. He's okay. Katharine McPhee wasn't bad, although she doesn't get enough to do. Joel David Moore added some humor (not the laugh out loud type, unfortunately. More the grunt at the effort type), but was obvious and predictable. I like Donal Logue, but he didn't do much to impress here. Joshua Leonard had some memorable teeth, but his acting isn't what you would call "good". It felt like Sinqua Walls tried, so you have to give him some credit. Unfortunately, either his talent wasn't up to the task or the direction was so poor that he ultimately doesn't come out of this looking very good. As a whole, the cast might have been slightly better than the average horror movie like this, but whatever talent they have isn't leveraged well at all.

The visual effects weren't good. I'm not going to comment on the 3D thing. It was bigger in 2011 and it's hard to gauge how effective it is when you're watching in 2D. I didn't take that into account in my review. The visual effects outside of that aren't very good. Obviously rubber sharks don't score many points.

It's clear that I'm not a fan of Shark Night. I suppose there's always some level of fun in seeing people trying (and failing) to avoid becoming shark dinner. The cookie cutter shark scene is perhaps the most memorable. Despite that, the PG-13 rating ushers this movie into obscurity. It needed to be rated R. David R. Ellis directed some terrible movies throughout his career. This was his final film before his death and it's a shame it wasn't better.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 4



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Meg, Deep Blue Sea, 47 Meters Down