‘Shark Bait’ Review
Stars: Holly Earl, Jack Trueman, Thomas Flynn, Malachi Pullar-Latchman, Catherine Hannay | Written by Nick Saltrese | Directed by James Nunn
Shark movies. What to say about the genre? Well, one thing you can say is that genre films featuring sharks terrorising humans are certainly prolific in their production, it feels like every month we get another shark movie of some kind. However, at this rate, there’s not many stories left to tell about shark versus man so filmmakers need the extra special something to make their movie stand out… So what does Shark Bait offer?
Well for a start it comes from director James Nunn, the British filmmaker behind a slew of great low-budget action movies over the years. He originally exploded on the scene with 2012’s Tower Block, before helming the likes of Green Street 3, Eliminators and One Shot, all starring Scott Adkins; as well as lensing The Marine 5 and 6 (the latter of which I was lucky enough to be on set for a day to see Nunn and co. at work). I’m such a fan of Nunn’s work that his name alone is enough to get me to check out a film, no matter the subject… So I was intensely interested in seeing what he could do in the crowded genre of killer shark movies. Especially as he’s made a number of action movies that have, for me, stood out from the pack.
The plot of Shark Bait (formerly known as Jetski), both apt titles given what happens in the movie, follows a group of four friends – Nat (Holly Earl), Tom (Jack Trueman), Greg (Thomas Flynn), Tyler (Malachi Pullar-Latchman) and Milly (Catherine Hannay) – partying on spring break in Mexico (though the movie was filmed in Malta). Getting wasted and being the cliched drunk American assholes the group decide to steal a couple of jetskis and head out to sea… Big mistake.
We all know what’s going to happen, don’t we? After partying at sea, racing the jetskis and generally being dicks, they crash the jetskis, badly injuring one of the group. Now all they have to do is make it back to land. Only our would-be thieves missed the newspaper clippings inside the cabin they stole the jetski keys from. Clippings that warn of shark attacks in the area… Oh and that badly injured friend? He’s bleeding profusely into the ocean!
OK, so Shark Bait has a pretty generic set-up, especially for a shark movie. Although this time around our protagonists bring the ENTIRE situation on themselves. Be a dick, suffer the consequences it seems.
One of the first things I noticed, once the film’s story kicked in that is, is that there’s something very “Jaws” in the choice of music for Shark Bait, especially when the shark is on screen. It truly feels like a loving homage to Steven Spielberg’s classic horror, as do a number of scenes in the film too. Speaking of scenes, director James Nunn brings an interesting visual flair to a cliched story, with some set pieces that we haven’t seen before – one character is accidentally caught by her hair on the watch of one of the shark’s victims and almost becomes a victim herself, for example. Nunn also stages the initial jets crash very much like an action movie, really playing on the impact and the “stunt” of the crash. However, for every good thing Nunn does with the visuals, it’s undone by Nick Saltrese’s script, which adds unwanted drama to the story in the form of Tom cheating on Nat with Milly AND a bunch of other girls – its an unnecessary addition to the story and only shows that Saltrese cut his teeth on British soaps where relationship drama fuels storylines!
The script, and the characterisations, really let the film down – all the guys being arrogant dicks and Milly has no qualms going behind Nat’s back and having an affair with her boyfriend Tom (the head dick), means that you care for no one APART from Nat. And Nat is something of an idiot as she spoke to a creepy local who pre-warned her about the great white shark in the area and STILL went out with her friends. That daft personal choice is explained away by having Nat essentially being told she’s a pushover by her cheating boyfriend Tom… How convenient!
Unfortunately, the aforementioned cliched story and annoying characters mean that Shark Bait only just rises above others of its ilk, mainly due to the way director James Nunn stages the shark attacks, show us the grisly consequences, and handles the tension as the group of friends are whittled down one by one. But we’ve seen all this before really so YMMV when it comes to Shark Bait. But hey, at least this is light years more enjoyable than the last shark movie I reviewed, January’s The Requin!
**½ 2.5/5
Shark Bait is available on VOD and Digital platforms now, in the US, from Vertical Entertainment. The film is released on DVD, on altitude.film and other digital platforms in the UK on June 6th.
