Greetings,
It's a day before the best week of the year. Oh, yes. I am talking about Shark Week! Squee, indeed! So, I thought, to kick things off a day early, I'd do a review of a shark related movie. No, not that one. Not that one either. Listen, I'll give you a minute to sift through the oeuvre of SyFy movies. Done? Good, but I'm sorry to say that today's discussion will not be centered around any of those. We're gonna talk about Shark Night. Not the best of this genre, but definitely not the worst.
Shark Night is a 2011 horror film directed by David R. Ellis, who was also a stuntman and who also directed the cult classic Snakes on a Plane. Sadly, he passed away a few years ago and this was his last film. The plot follows a group of college students on a vacation where things get unfortunate. Maybe not the most original of stories thus far. But let's set that faux pas aside for now, because things in this film do make a turn with some never-before-seen ideas. As far as I know.
The group of friends head to the vacation home of Sarah, played by Sara Paxton, and since this is her home, we get introduced to some of her old friends, who she may or may not be on good terms with, including an old boyfriend, Dennis, played by Chris Carmack. Calm down, Nashville fans. He doesn't sing in this movie. Now, the aforementioned house just so happens to be on a lake. A private lake. Or is it? No, it is. But no one told the sharks that!! Yeah, as you may have guessed, sharks start showing up. And they're hungry. Because movie sharks are always hungry. ALWAYS!
As the story goes on, the friends, as expected, start getting picked off one by one, though some of these incidents happen in very UNexpected ways. Ways that are extremely entertaining and quite memorable in some cases. I'll just say "Jet Ski". If you've seen this movie, you'll know what I mean. But what I really like about this film is the twist. Yes, it has a twist, which explains why there are sharks in a place where sharks don't tend to be. Again, as far as I know. And I think it was a pretty decent twist. I mean, it was decent enough that when I heard it I said, "Wait, what?" And it was the part where we got some of the most entertaining acting. I may have even chuckled a bit, and for the right reasons. Because I think it was supposed to be a thing that is meant to be frightening for the characters in the film, but rather amusingly ridiculous for the audience.
Oh, and speaking of acting, how are the actors in this film? Not too bad. And we get some familiar faces, like Joel David Moore (that one guy from Avatar). Josh Leonard (that one guy from The Blair Witch Project), Katherine McPhee (that one girl from...OK, I'm done with this) and the awesome, awesome Donal Logue. I have loved him since I first saw him on an a rerun of The Commish! Good times. Yeah, he is definitely the best thing about this movie. He tends to be that.
All in all, I'm not gonna say this was a great movie, but it was definitely entertaining. It's no Jaws, of course. It's not even Jaws 2. But there are moments that you will remember, and like I said, I thought the twist was not a bad story element. Look, it's a shark movie. These days, we haven't exactly been trained to consider them synonymous with high art, but who says it has to be? Shark Night is a fun time with a movie, and I've never even seen it in 3D. So, if you get sad when Shark Week ends and you still want some teeth and fins, this isn't a bad way to get them. That sounded a bit menacing. Sorry.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
