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Let me get this straight: it's an awful movie. But imagine this: you are on vacation in Mexico, exactly in the places where the film was shot, and one evening it happens that on a local TV "Tintorera" is aired. It suddenly becomes a must-see. Even now I can't believe how much I laughed: incredibly plain and stupid plot, bad acting, poor dialogs, male nude scenes while the only good thing about in the film was the beauty of the actresses, shocking pointless ending...this movie got it all! As if it wasn't enough, it also showed me how the Mexican coast was before the wild tourism colonization: a real natural paradise that no longer exists (or at least changed too much). A punch on the chin.

Pure crap but, unintentionally, really comical. 5 out of 10 only for the laughter

The original book "Jaws" actually had quite a bit of sex in it which Steven Spielberg left out of the famous film (other the than one impossible-to-make-out nude swimming scene at the beginning). There is nothing wrong therefore with adding a little sex and nudity back into the shark movie formula. Unfortunately, what this film does is add a few shark scenes into what is basically a swinging 70's sex movie. Two Mexican prettyboys spend their time seducing bikini-clad British and American tourists (played by some admittedly very attractive actresses). They don't seem to notice that a giant tiger shark is making short work of the cast until halfway through the film. In one ridiculous scene, for instance, the girl one of the men has fallen in love with(played by Fiona Lewis)goes for a nude swim after bedding down with the other man and (of course) is eaten by the shark a la the opening of "Jaws". But the one guy doesn't seem to notice that her clothes are still in the house, while the other doesn't stop to wonder what has happened to the girl he earlier fell for.

Several other reviewers have already commented on the homoerotic aspects of the film. The two guys are naked more than the women (and almost as much as the shark). They go from sleeping with the same woman (Lewis), to "switch-hitting" with two women (one of who is played by Priscilla Barnes), to finally having sex with the same woman at the same time (Susan George). The 25th Anniversary DVD edition came out this year (it's actually the 27th anniversary but whose counting?)and they apparently added a bunch of additional footage (even though the movie is slow as molasses already). I suspect some of this additional footage might involve these two swingers just getting it over with and having sex with each other. But I'm not complaining about the sex, the nude scenes, or the even homosexual subtext--this is supposed to be a shark movie! What about the shark?!

My review is not based on the plot or the acting. Rather, it's based on the non-acting. All of the animals in this movie - sharks, fish, sea turtles, rays - were really killed to make this pathetic movie. Shark attack movies are one of my favorite genres. But I became nauseous when I realized that they were really killing these amazing creatures. What an incredible waste and disregard of life just to make a movie. How can this be rationalized?

I am so thankful that such pompous cruelty is illegal now.

So if you are like me, and enjoy shark movies but have a heart, then do not watch this film. It's really very sad.

Most of the action takes place on land, and nothing of substance happens there. The film is lowbrow to the extreme (every single female character is an airhead that's ready to go to bed with a stranger THE MINUTE she meets him - the ultimate male fantasy, perhaps?), but at least you get to look at some beautiful landscapes, and of course there is also a lot of nudity to keep you going between the all-too-infrequent shark attacks. (*1/2)

Rene Cardona Jr's TINTORERA (1977) is one ridiculous JAWS ripoff made by this Mexican film maker who is also known (among many other films) as the director of jungle exploitation film TREASURE OF THE AMAZON (1985), a much better film.

TINTORERA stars Susan George and the film involves a bunch of people having a vacation on some paradise island in which there seems to be nothing but happiness and beautiness and not a trace of the outside world. Soon, however, after some 30 minutes of the film, finally the nasty shark starts to eat and kill people and also return the vacationers back on earth from their dream world. What really amazes me in this film is how long it takes for the shark to finally arrive because as far as I know, this was supposed to be another "shark film" that would appeal to the same audience than Spielberg's JAWS (1975) did.

The film has absolutely incredibly slow pace and it will be too much for most to watch without falling asleep. There is plenty of scenes depicting sharks being killed by people or each other and also the "sharks attacking human being" scenes are pretty dull and thus funny. There's plenty of naked skin and bodies and also some blood so the exploitation elements are there as they were in TREASURE, too. And exploitation TINTORERA is almost as much as it is trash. Very much, that is!

Still the Mexican locations and beaches are truly wonderful and very beautiful and by watching them it is much easier to sit the film through. Rarely has nature's beauty been captured this stunningly on trash film like this, so the film isn't completely without its merits. Otherwise I'd recommend this for fans of ultra low budget grade Z cinema only and of course for fans of the Cardonas. 3/10

If you want to see an array of beautiful sea creatures that no longer exist, by and large because they're butchered for no reason in this awful movie, then this film becomes a treasure of historical documentation. Otherwise, it's a plot less story about three and four way sexploits with the final few minutes dedicated to the premise of a shark horror flick. Unfortunately for me I had to sit through the whole thing as I had started it and it was too hot and windy to go outside. You do get ideas about how you'd like to have that much money so that you could live on a yacht without responsibility and the promise of toast after toast with your latest shag, but the continual slaughter of sharks, sea turtles and stingrays for a movie such as this leaves one filled with guilt.

Prolific cult movie director Ray Cordona Jr. has created a strange hybrid of horror movie/erotic "Jet Set" drama, the latter genre very popular throughout the 70's-80's. "Tintorera," (Tiger Shark) features an extremely charismatic pair of adventurous guys, living out the ultimate male fantasy in beautiful Cancun, Mexico. Andres Garcia and Hugo Stiglitz are perfectly cast as Miguel and Esteban, two shark hunters(!), living on rich boy Steve's yacht, who find a lot of time to hunt beautiful ladies as well, luscious women who the two share and bed together. Andres Garcia's (impressive guy) Miguel is living the good life as a gigolo in Paradise, and the two guys become inseparable after a nasty fight over one lady, who later becomes dinner for a very nasty tiger shark, who is always lurking in the background. This movie is truly mind boggling in the way that it crosses and combines genres in a way that is never seen in American cinema. Yes, "Tintorera" is a European film in every way. This one probably wasn't seen by the right audience when released unleashed in theaters, as fans of the classic "Jaws" were led to believe this was going to be more of the same. Let's just say that "Tintorera" was the movie that "Jaws" was afraid to be. While the novel "Jaws" was loaded with sex and adult themes, the movie was scrubbed clean of all that, in order to bring in young audiences. But this one is a different beast entirely, and aimed at an adult audience. And while the star of "Jaws" was a rubber, mechanical beast, the sharks in "Tintorera" are all very much real, and so much more menacing as a result. A big drawback with this movie is also one thing that makes it so hypnotically fascinating; the real, onscreen killings of countless sharks and other exotic sea creatures like manta rays and turtles. This was a very common practice in Euro films from the 70's, onscreen killing of real animals, and it is pretty horrifying to see the blood spurting from the gills of these beautiful creatures as they slowly and painfully die while the camera ruthlessly captures everything. Today we can watch with the knowledge that this happened over 40 years ago, and this practice has long been deemed illegal. Still, it is a hard and uncomfortable thing to watch. But that is the definition of "Grindhouse" cinema, and "Tintorera" is a prime example of the genre. And combined with the ugly brutality is some stunningly beautiful photography of both the deep sea and of a Cancun that sadly no longer exists. Since this movie was filmed that whole area has been disgracefully built up as an overcrowded, over industrialized tourist trap, and the primitive simplicity seen here is forever gone. As of this writing "Tintorera" has not gotten the hi-def restoration it deserves, but the available print is at least in the original language and the uncut 126 minute version. But the 4x3 cropped image is not the way this was intended to be seen. For open minded, adventurous viewers, this movie is sure to please. Puritanical, judgemental audiences might want to steer clear of it. I was surprised to read some reviews that called this dirty or sleazy, because it's attitude towards sexuality and relationships is actually quite innocent and endearing, and it's a prime example of how our views on sex have degenerated in the last 40 years. In that way, this is an important film, and a documentation of what we have lost.

I consider myself a genuine fan of bad cinema as much as the next guy but this film was truly awful, in an often hilariously inept kind of way. I understand that this was an exercise in exploitation but it just seemed to lack any real sense of cohesion whatsoever. Whatever sense of suspense and/or horror the movie strives for is invariably trumped by a total sense of ineptitude and absurdity. To add insult to injury, the relentless use of actual real-life footage depicting the merciless slaughter of marine life of every kind only made an already tough movie going experience almost unbearable.

Sitting through this movie is like rubbernecking one's way past a bad pile-up on the freeway involving a caravan of clowns or circus performers.

I expected a Jaws clone and got a movie about threesomes. After I got over the initial shock I actually found Tintorera to be a sweet, almost classy, little male fantasy. Tintorera is actually a sex/beach-flick, and thus perfectly captures the feel of the seventies take on sexual revolution; an era of hedonistic disco parties, sexual experimentation and short, loveless sexual encounters. Rene Cardona Jr. regular Hugo Stiglitz looks great as a wealthy boy on vacation, Esteban, who "finds himself" in a three part relationship with the cute Gabrielle and his former sexual competitor Miguel, the Shark hunter. Meanwhile the feared Tintorera, a big-ass tiger shark, is having a feast on the sexed-out beach community. The "f***-and-die" concept, usually seen in slasher films, is clearly visible and you could say that Tintorera's attack on the swimmers are really an attack on the sexual revolution. If you want cheese you'll have no trouble finding it (the Darth Vader-like breathing of Tintorera or the underwater conversations between Esteban and Miguel directly springs to mind...), but don't look to hard since the larger parts of the movie is actually pretty well-made and totally undeserving of its bad reputation (which I think is more due to the whole idea of a shark/sex movie, than the movie itself). Chances are you might actually enjoy it, as I did.

Also, if you are a gay man interested in exploitation cinema you are bound to like it: the homosexual overtones between Esteban and Miguel are painfully obvious and there are numerous shots of Hugo Stiglitz cute little ass.

7/10 on a regular scale

Rene Cradona Jr - the man whose dad brought us the exploitation movie Survive! - turns his attention to the '70s craze for shark movies with Tintorera. To call this movie a Jaws rip-off is rather misleading in some ways. The fact that a shark is running amok is almost completely ignored by the director, who spends more time concentrating on the nudity and the background scenery. Perhaps the budget was so low they couldn't afford to include many shark attack sequences. So, in an effort to pull in audiences, Cardona simply hired as many good-looking actors as he could and bribed them to remove their clothing at every given opportunity.

American tourist Steven (Hugo Stiglitz) arrives at a paradise-like Mexican resort aboard his luxury yacht, where he soon falls in love with British tourist Patricia (Fiona Lewis). After a fall-out with Steven, Patricia beds down with local playboy and part-time shark hunter Miguel (Andres Garcia). However, while out swimming in the sea one morning, Patricia is devoured by a tintorera (tiger shark). Steven and Miguel begrudgingly become friends and spend much of the summer hunting for sharks by day and hunting for women by night. They reel in British holiday-maker Gabriella (Susan George), a free-spirited fun-seeker who readily surrenders herself to a three-way sexual relationship with the two charmers. Tragedy soon strikes as the tintorera once more returns to feed in the waters and, after a night-time massacre during which a group of party-goers are killed by the deadly shark, Steven finally decides that the time has come to exterminate the killer fish.

Virtually everyone on the cast list spends half their screen time naked. It's hard to imagine what convinced "real" and "serious" actors like George, Lewis, Stiglitz, Jennifer Ashley and Priscilla Barnes to appear in this film. Their characters certainly present no interesting or challenging acting opportunities, and it seems unlikely that any of them could have seen much chance here to further their careers in a meaningful way. The story progresses almost randomly, with practically no sense of suspense, urgency or purpose. The love angle is not slightly credible (Steven and Miguel are just sleazy, promiscuous woman-users, and it's totally unbelievable that every time they speak to a female she becomes putty in their hands). And the shark angle, as mentioned, is neglected for such long spells that it becomes virtually incidental to the plot. I've seen some damned bad movies in my time, but Tintorera is definitely one of the worst of the lot. I'll grant that it has unintentional hilarity if you're prepared to look for it, but on a serious film-making level - heck, even on an exploitation level - it is a truly, truly, truly awful film.

Apparently there is a 126 minute version of Tintorera. I have no desire to see it. The 90 minute edition I forced myself to sit through was quite terrible enough, without prolonging my suffering for an additional half an hour.

I missed this movie on its original release way back in 1977 (?) - I was really pleased when I found out it was (finally) getting the DVD treatment. The DVD finally arrived last week and I settled down with beer in hand to watch.... Well - It certainly is no JAWS movie - very little shark attack action at all - more of a soft porn movie with a few shots of a large Tiger Shark swimming around. It is beautifully photographed and the underwater shark shots are cool but that is about all....We get one attack sequence that is obviously a homage to the JAWS opening sequence -but it is certainly not of the same standard. Not a bad little movie if you like a double dose of "cheese" - pleased I bought it for my collection but it will never be hailed as a Shark "classic" !! Give it a go - you may like.... ??

well well well. i've got the brand new DVD release of this flick last Christmas, i've where thrilled to see that there was a giant white shark on the cover but in the movie it is a small tiger shark...duh. when i started to watch it looked kinda interesting but later on...uh, this is the most boring shark flick ever!. it contains 2 hour of 2 guys hitting of girls, and maybe 3-4 shots of the shark attacks. it was a huge disappointment - this is a warning: if you love shark movies don't watch this one it is more like a soft porn flick more than a horror flick - take on better films like Jaws or even the cult classic The Last Shark. i don't recommend this one. stay away !! 1/10

Despite the fact that most of them are complete crap, I do actually consider myself a fan of the Jaws rip-offs. I've had a copy of this film for a long while but I've continually put off watching it, and the reason for that is simply down to the running time; 127 minutes is far, far too long for a silly and trashy Jaws rip off. That being said, this film is more like a trashy and exploitative soap opera than a Jaws rip-off, but even so; the runtime is still far too long. It almost feels like the scenes of the shark have been thrown in as an afterthought, and that possibly could be the case; as aside from a few minor events, the shark hardly figures in the movie at all. The plot is actually quite complicated, but to cut a long story short; what we basically have is two men who meet on holiday and soon fall out over a girl. Soon after that they become friends again and decide to go womanising together, several times. They're so busy with their womanising that they don't realise that some of their girlfriends are being picked off by a hungry tiger shark!

It's a shame that the film is more like a soap opera than a horror movie really because the horror parts of the film are actually not bad, it's just the dull and tedious 'drama' side of it that lets it down. The film really does drag far too often, and that's really not what you want from a film that is supposed to be fun. The version of the film that I saw looks like it had been pieced together from two different sources as half of it was in English (dubbed) and the other half was in Spanish. This actually gives the film a rather surreal feel as the language is constantly chopped and changed. When the shark actually does feature, we do at least get some good gore with it and several of these sequences are actually really well worked. The film is somewhat notorious for its animal killing scenes and that's hardly surprising because plenty of fish get butchered and it's not nice viewing - worse than Cannibal Holocaust, that is for sure! The underwater scenes are really good, however - but a lot of them are probably just documentary footage spliced into the film. It all boils down to a decent enough conclusion, but I cant bring myself to really like this film because it's just too much of a mess. Cool title though.

Going by the year of its release, the title, the director and the gloriously over-the-top promotional art, one might reasonably expect ¡Tintorera! to be little more than a mindless, exploitative rip-off of Jaws, but while certain elements of the film have undoubtedly been inspired by Spielberg's '75 summer blockbuster, the film is surprisingly free of massive man-eating fish action for much of the time, focusing instead on the liberated sex lives of two men living life to the full in the Caribbean.

Hugo Stiglitz plays businessman Steven, who is recovering from a nervous breakdown; Andrés García is gigolo Miguel, who trades sex for cash. Initially love rivals, both vying for the interest of the same woman, the men eventually become pals and, after sampling the delights of two care-free American girls (whose morals are so loose that they actively encourage a pair of rapists), they enter into a love triangle with sexy blonde Gabriella (Susan George). All is going swimmingly until Miguel is eaten while hunting sharks; after that, Gabriella ups and leaves (one man clearly not being enough for her) and Hugo dedicates himself to killing the fish that ate his friend.

Steven and Miguel's constant womanising mean that the film is loaded with enough gratuitous nudity and sexy shenanigans to keep the viewer entertained until the chomping of not-so-innocent swimmers begins in earnest. And for those who like their films extra exploitative, and who aren't of a highly sensitive disposition, the film also features lots of real animal killing (purportedly stock footage, but I'm not so sure) which, although not quite as disturbing as that in Cannibal Holocaust, is still quite callous, with a cute manta ray bleeding from its gills being particularly unsettling.

As far as the attacks on humans by the tiger shark are concerned, the first is fairly tame (a weak copy of the opening scene from Jaws), and a later feeding frenzy on a group of skinny dippers leaves the water bright red with blood, but it is Miguel's death that packs in the gnarliest gore, the poor guy having his legs torn off and his head left rolling around on the ocean floor. Tintorera was either extremely annoyed at the number of sharks that Miguel had killed or seriously disapproved of his philandering ways.

Two shark hunters flirt with an attractive British lady (Susan George) while hunting down a large tiger shark terrorizing the Mexican East coast.

I know what you are thinking. A shark movie in 1977... it has to be a ripoff of "Jaws", right? I would have to say no. While we could surely accuse them of cashing in on the success of "Jaws" and riding on the coattails of shark fever, there is really nothing plot-wise that can compare the two. Heck, they do not even use the same species of shark as their "villain".

But most odd, the focus here is not so much a shark, its victims, or a scared populace. No closing down a beach. No oceanography students. What we have are two guys who make a deal with a woman to have an ongoing three-way sexual relationship. We do not see them in the act, so it is not exactly smutty or even really exploitation, but it sure is scandalous...

Okay okay...so this movie wasn't the most technically sound movie ever. When it comes to low-budget horror, they seldom are. However, get past the bad dubbing and stupid plot, and this one's actually fairly entertaining. The plot seems to have been stolen from a 70's Jaws based porn movie. two shark hunters find loose women and invite them over to have sex with them. Nude swimming and threesomes abound...until a "giant killer shark...the biggest ever sighted" shows up to ruin their sex games. The effects in this one are pretty shoddy(the "man" hanging out of the shark's mouth has to be seen to be believed), and most of the underwater scenes of the shark are laughable...you know that shark isn't that big. But get past these fallacies, and the movie is enjoyable. If you enjoyed Jaws and like the "naughty" things in life, then you'll probably enjoy "tintorera" and all its gratuitous gore and nudity(the only bad part is the naked men...blah!)

Mediterranean playboys woo the affections of sexy tourists, and treat them to fun and frivolity aboard their yacht, while a ferocious tiger shark interrupts their sordid interludes. Stephen (Stiglitz) is convalescing aboard a luxury yacht when he meets Miguel (Garcia) a free-loading local who wines and dines the tourists like some sort of male escort. Their initial meeting is curt, but over time they become firm friends. The homosexual undertones between the two characters is interesting depth, and while the issue is never expounded to any degree, the subject of relationships in general is exhaustively displayed here in its most fantastic extremes (the threesome pact with Susan George is examined in jealous detail).

Aside from Susan George as the main love interest (there are so many, it's hard to keep track), Fiona Lewis and Priscilla Barnes pop in for a good time, not a long time, just to add some comforting familiarity for non-Spanish speaking audiences. The soundtrack is memorable (a couple of Chanter Sisters disco beats and a nice Carol Connors penned melody sung by Kelly Stevens, "Together Until Goodbye") and the scenery is warm and inviting, but the savagery with which Cardona dispenses dozens of sharks is vulgar and distasteful.

Overall, whilst the all-too-few shark attack scenes look convincing, and the multitude of semi-nude babes is distracting, the film will more than likely be fatally overlong for most audiences. In spite of its flaws, "Tintorera" remains an addictive motion picture, one that seems to improve with each subsequent viewing, and possibly deserving of cult status.