Shark Bait (2022)

"Terror runs deep."

Plot

A group of friends enjoying a spring break weekend steal a couple of jetskis. Racing them out to sea, they end in a horrific head-on collision, severely injuring one of the group and sinking one of the jetskis. Stranded in the middle of nowhere and with no hope of an immediate rescue, the blood in the water attracts the attention of a very hungry shark.

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Another of the neverending deluge of people being stranded out at sea and being hunted down by a shark, Shark Bait has plenty of direct low budget competition and the almighty shadow of Spielberg's Jaws to try and contend with. When some of the producers behind this were also behind Great White and 47 Meters Down, you kind of think they need to start branching off into something other than this same formulaic nonsense. But formulaic can be entertaining, just as long as it's done well and one thing this killer shark sub-genre has a tendency to do is bore. Shark Bait is not boring, far from it, and it's actually one of the best killer shark films to come out in a long time. Just don't expect it to reinvent the wheel. Originally going under the title Jetski, it was a smart decision to rename because that is just horrid.

Before I cover anything else, I have to say that Shark Bait gives itself zero chance right from the start by portraying this group of friends as complete unsufferable assholes. I know that these one-note characters are chum, they are all of these films, but the script goes out of its way to ensure that you don't want to see any of them survive even before they head out into the water. If it isn't for being rude to strangers, it's breaking and entering and stealing the jetskis to the unsurprising plot revelation that two of the group have been cheating on a third (like we need extra soap opera drama when they're all stuck on a jetski being killed off by a shark) and the fact that they're generally just a stupid bunch of idiots who get the ultimate gut-munching karma. Thankfully, exposition is reasonably brief and it's only about ten minutes into the film before they have their accident. The cast are lumbered with these characters, whether they like it or not, so they can't do much with the material. At least its not their fault we want to see them eaten.

Shark Bait recycles the standard trope of people being trapped out at sea with a shark after them and given how many times we've seen that over the past few years, it needs something different and fresh. You won't get that here unfortunately, with the only original idea coming with the characters being stuck on the jetski rather than a damaged boat, a life raft, a sinking island or just floating in the ocean. The script churns out familiar sequences of the characters seeing something that could help and trying to reach it, moments of false hope are aplenty and then there are quite a few actual jump scares where the shark just comes out of nowhere. Despite the generic nature of the plot, the script doesn't do a bad job of holding your engagement throughout and I can't say I was bored at any point, always a good sign. But don't forget to groan when one character quotes the title.

There are some solid set pieces, including one moment when one character's hair is caught in the wristband of someone the shark has just snatched, causing them both to get dragged along. There's also a decent final sequence in which the shark hunts down the jetski as it heads back to the shore. Most of the film does involve the characters just bobbing up and down on the jetski but there's enough variety in these other sequences to make it stand out more. What's better is that the make-up effects and kills are pretty effective and not just of people splashing around in the water before it turns red. There's a grisly leg wound with bone sticking out of a shin, some nasty bite marks on a victim and, in the film's highlight, one character is bitten in half. And characters actually bleed properly! Not just tiny trickles but when they're really injured, they do bleed out. Director James Nunn has hopefully paid attention to his competitors, realised that fans of these type of flicks want to see some proper carnage and not just cheap CGI and so he's delivered it, which is why this is more memorable than something like The Requin.

There's no question that the bulk of these shark films have fantastic cinematography and Shark Bait is no exception, with the waters around Malta looking gorgeous and doubling for Mexico very well. A nice little new invention that a lot of these films use is drone camera footage looking down from above which is used well here once again to convey the isolation and the sense that anything could be lurking beneath. The underwater photography is crisp too. Production values across the board are top notch in all honesty. Shark Bait really stands out from the others of its kind with the special effects. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this one having watched a few other killer shark films in the same week but was pleasantly surprised. Real footage of sharks is integrated well into the shots, with CGI used sparingly but when it is used, it looks solid. It's definitely a cut above the majority of Sy Fy and The Asylum sharksploitation films but even with other shark films like Maneater, the effects team here earn their stripes on such a limited budget. What Nunn actually gets and most of these other films don't is that it's not just the attack itself, its the constant threat of a shark, which is the key to driving suspense.

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Final Verdict

Shark Bait is a well-made, entertaining shark flick which is only let down by its unoriginal plot and its poor characters. It won't quite have you being too scared to go out onto a jetski but there's been far, far worse shark films over the last few years. Shark Bait is a small step in the right direction.

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Shark Bait Director(s): James Nunn Writer(s): Nick Saltrese Actor(s): Holly Earl, Jack Trueman, Catherine Hannay, Malachi Pullar-Latchman, Thomas Michael Flynn, Manuel Cauchi, Maxime Durand, Joshua Takacs Duration: 87 mins