Sharktopus Review

• 21st Mar 2011

Sharktopus is the new film to be produced by b-movie legend, Roger Corman, as he unleashes his new creation – half shark, half octopus. The US Navy has backed an ambitious project by an organisation called Blue Water to develop the ultimate weapon. Dr. Nathan Sands (Eric Roberts) has been less than honest with his team of scientists turning the SL11’s (Sharktopus) DNA from that of a hunter into a killer. Sadly things go slightly wrong and Sharktopus decides to head for the Mexican resort of Puerto Vallarta looking for anyone to kill.

I wouldn’t approach this film with any expectations of quality. The title alone fully informs you, what you are about to experience will be dreadful in every sense and boy, does this film deliver on that promise. This film is designed for fans of the kind of productions turned in by the late, great, Edward D Wood Jr. The total lack of production values is a thing of beauty as a group of dreadful actors run around reciting an absolute turkey of a script.

The cast is led by Eric Roberts, who appears to be drunk for the majority of the shoot. The pairing of Nicole Sands (Sara Malakul Lane) and Andy Flynn (Kerem Bursin) is hilariously bad too. Bursin does a fantastic job of running around with no shirt on, shouting “NO!” at the top of his voice repeatedly. The only redeeming performances come from Liv Boughn as Stacy Everheart, the feisty reporter and Héctor Jiménez as Bones, her trusty cameraman. They both seem to understand the tone of the film they are trapped in and simply go along with the ridiculousness.

The Mexican location seems to have been taken straight out of the local tourist office archives as we get endless shots of local dancing, water sports, landmarks and children sitting around and the background is filled with bikini clad girls running around like they were auditioning for Baywatch. There is one outstanding sequence though, when a pair of young lovers go bungee jumping (the resort obviously had a jump which needed to be utilized). The girl is terrified of heights but overcomes it by jumping, only for Sharktopus to devour her mid-air. You would expect a cut back to her partner for a reaction shot, standing on the platform, horrified by what he has just witnessed but this would require the use of another set up. This film simply by-passes that and moves along to another location like nothing ever happened.

The realisation of Sharktopus itself is done with computers, in this case using software from around 1995. The CGI is as bad as everything else, as those victims caught by the tentacles simply have to turn around on the spot miming the whiplash. Joy can be found once Sharktopus comes ashore as he walks around on his tentacles terrorising the innocent resort goers.

The worst thing about Sharktopus is its lack of any real guts in terms of content. Corman has a long history of sea monsters from Attack of the Crab Monsters to Creature From the Haunted Sea. Spielberg’s Jaws changed everything for monster movies as the mainstream simply hijacked all that b-movies were doing for years. Corman’s answer was Humanoids From the Deep in 1980 which re-claimed the moral low ground by including violence, sex, foul language and interspecies breeding. This is undoubtedly the direction that Sharktopus should have taken but, given that it was a TV movie perhaps such extremes were not possible.

There is very little to recommend about Sharktopus unless you are a huge fan of trash films or Corman himself. That being the case you will have a highly entertaining evening’s watching. Sharktopus is the perfect midnight movie to enjoy with friends when you know you will talk over it and laugh at its awfulness.

Aled Jones