Released at the tail end of the summer, Shark Night 3D tries to capture the popularity of last year’s aquatic-horror comedy Piranha 3D, but fails due to cheap special effects and a lack of humour. The plot is simple enough: A group of university students go to an island cottage on a Louisiana lake, but when sharks mysteriously break through the floodgates, they must escape before the feeding frenzy begins. Director David Ellis does a good job creating tension with underwater shots of victims before the limb-gnawing, but the CG sharks look unrealistic when compared to animatronic counterparts. This is only exacerbated by the use of 3D, focusing more on bouncing, bikini-clad girls than actual shark attacks and cheapening the film’s thrills.
This article appears in Sep 1-7, 2011.
