Like many shark movies, the plot ofShark Night 3Dis simple: a group of young people have their holiday ruined by sharks.Few shark movies have gained positive attention sinceJaws, and one of the issues is the general lack of creativity, asa movie confined to water can be limiting. However, as director of the goofy horrorSnakes On A Planeand twoFinal Destinationfranchise movies in which people die in improbable ways,director David M. Ellis would likely have been prepared to think outside the box withShark Night.
Shark Nightfails as a movie. However, the shark movie genre has its own rules, andShark Nightis criminally underrated.
Shark Nightwas not a commercial or critical success, grossing $41.4 million against a budget of $25 million, and with a 19% rating onRotten Tomatoes.The castrecorded a rap song about the movie which was, by some accounts, better received thanShark Nightitself, which received mostly negative reviews for its ludicrous plot, one-dimensional characters, fairly predictable twist, and PG-13-rated violence. Taking all this into account,Shark Nightseemingly fails as a movie. However, the shark movie genre has its own rules andShark Nightis criminally underrated as a shark movie.
Shark Night Features Shark Species That Other Shark Movies Forget
One Shark Night Detail That Seems Made-Up Is Actually Possible
While great whites are the stars of almost every shark movie,Shark Nightfeatures just one among many other species,including a moment of mistaken identity that shark buffs will notice: relatively harmless sand tiger sharks are misidentified as much deadlier tiger sharks.Shark Nightalso has a bull shark, a hammerhead shark, and features cookiecutter sharks demonstrating their bizarre twisting bite in a very creepy nighttime scene. Many of the shark facts one character lists are real, and even the implausible-sounding location is more realistic than it seems.
In the 1990s, flooding washed six bull sharks into a lake on an Australian golf course, where they lived for seventeen years.
These days,most shark movies are usually set in the ocean and aim for realism, with a few exceptions, likeUnder Parisand the cultSharknadofranchise.Shark Nightis set in a brackish lake, and while almost all the shark species inShark Nightwould not survive in the lake, one of them could, and it is one of the species considered dangerous to people: bull sharks. Bull sharks are notoriously aggressive and can live in both salt and fresh water, soalthough theShark Nightplot is mostly unrealistic, finding bull sharks in this setting would not be impossible.
Shark Night’s Special Effects Are Actually Pretty Good (& There’s A Good Reason)
American Idol Star And Award-winning Gotham Actor Were Also Cast In Shark Night
Unlike most B-movie sharks, which tend to be CGI,the sharks inShark Nightare mostly animatronic, and look surprisingly realistic. This is because the legendary animatronics creator Walt Conti worked on the movie. Conti supervised the orca special effects in the 1993 movieFree Willy,and he is also responsible for the well-received shark movieDeep Blue Sea’seerily realistic animatronic sharks.Two scenes inShark Nightinvolved close-up attacks by a hammerhead and a great white shark, and so Conti and his team designed and built two kinds of shark models: a “swimmer” and a hydraulically-powered “attacker.”
Shark Nightstars Sara Paxton, who found mainstream recognition as a mermaid in the coming-of-age movieAquamarine,before changing direction with the disturbing horrorThe Last House on the Left.Another familiar face is Alyssa Diaz, who now stars opposite Nathan Fillion inThe Rookie.Paxton and Diaz act in a wide range of genres, butAmerican Idolstar Katharine McPhee has a very conservative image, yet plays ‘bad girl’ Beth inShark Night, which might surprise her fans. In an even more surprising role, the award-winningGothamandSons of Anarchyactor Donal Logue plays inept sheriff Sabin.
In Shark Night, The Humans Are The Villains
Shark Night’s ‘Meta’ Take Is Unique Among Shark Movies
Shark Night’s antagonists are sadistic character archetypes that appear regularly in horror moviesbut are still unheard of in shark movies.Shark Night’s big reveal is that the villains, the handsome Dennis and his shark-obsessed sidekick Red, whose teeth are sharpened to points, released the sharks into the lake and are feeding people to them while live-streaming the attacks, making these men more terrifying than the sharks. Thoughshark movies no longer portray sharks as the villain, most are still ‘human vs shark’ stories, even if all the human characters are trying to do is survive.
This surprisingly dark theme isn’t generally found in goofy B-movies likeShark Night.
When shark movies have human villains, they are usually arrogant, image-obsessed characters trying to cover up shark attacks while claiming they are “bad for business.“Mayor Vaughn fromJawsis the classic example, as he is a metaphor for greed which still holds up today.Shark Night, with its rather ‘meta’ reference to unregulated and disturbing online content, is ahead of its time, with this surprisingly dark theme that isn’t generally found in goofy B-movies.Shark Night’s unique features offer fans of shark movies something different, and this movie deserves another look.
Shark Night 3D
Cast
Shark Night 3D is a horror thriller directed by David R. Ellis, centered on a group of college friends whose weekend at a lake house turns deadly when they encounter a swarm of aggressive sharks. The film stars Sara Paxton, Dustin Milligan, and Chris Carmack, and features a combination of live-action and CGI effects to create its underwater predators. Released in 2011, it combines elements of suspense and terror set in an aquatic environment.
