Nightmare Shark

SyFy Shark Week meets Nightmare On Elm Street? Yep! Characters from past SyFy shark movie efforts? Yep!

The idea here is great, and to anyone who thinks "preposterous" ... really, it's not any goofier having a shape-shifting burnt man invading dreams than it is to have a shark doing it, when you really think about it.

"Nightmare Shark" clears the low-expectation, high-reward hurdles easily and is one of the more memorable Sy-Fyish shark films. While it falls flat in a few spots, it recovers very well, and even manages a few genuinely suspenseful and unsettling scenes. While this one could have run on the idea alone, there seems to have been some effort and thought invested into it anyway. Really, it's almost a vulgar display of clever for the Sy Fy Network, who were able to make low-brow considerably less low-brow than ... well, everyone kind of expects.

I gave this 6.5/10, and I sincerely hope that this one gets franchised by the network. Also, I hope they throw a "Nightmare Shark" franchise down the same silly holes as the original "Nightmare" series eventually went through.

Overall, "Nightmare Shark" exceeded expectations, with the B-shark idea since "Sharknado".

Granted, I have to admit that I wasn't exactly harboring much of any expectations to this 2018 movie titled "Nightmare Shark", given the movie's title and the fact that most shark movies are laughable attempts at movie making at best.

However, with "Nightmare Shark" being a movie that I hadn't already seen, nor actually ever heard about, and given my fascination with shark movies, then of course I had to sit down and watch it.

And I made it just a bit more than halfway through the ordeal that is "Nightmare Shark" from writer Griff Furst. Talk about a ridiculous storyline. There was nothing in the storyline that appealed to me, and it was soul-breaking to sit through and witness such ludacrous writing would actually make a transition from script to screen.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, though actor Bobby Campo seemed very familiar somehow. I have to say that the actresses and actors in the movie literally had nothing to work with in terms of script, character gallery and dialogue, and it was restricting their performances.

Visually then you're not in for anything grand. The special effects in "Nightmare Shark" were exactly that; special. The CGI effects in the movie looked like something regurgitated from a 1990s computer game.

If you enjoy shark movies, like I do, do yourself a favor and stay clear of this one. It just simply isn't worth the time, money or effort.

My rating of directors Griff Furst and Nathan Furst's 2018 TV movie "Nightmare Shark" lands on a generous two out of ten stars, and that is solely because of the production value of the movie.

I saw this movie and came to rate it. To my surprise I discovered this movie was originally a shark movie?!? I saw it with a Dream-dwealing Water-witch as a vilan... Can't say the movie is exactly the same, doubtfully, but some inconsistencies now start to make sense. It's scary and insulting to the crew that they decided "we'll transform this shark movie into a witch movie for Europe!". It makes me wonder how they sold it in Japan, an Octopus Hentai movie? Anyway, it's very weak, actors did try tho.

Lol this totally sucked I mean was it suppose to be scary? NOT. Like at all. So dumb. However I gave it 2 stars instead of one cuz yes we went to rent a comedy and they didn't have any and this is definitely an unintentional comedy at least....

Have made no secret in the past of intensely disliking, and even outright hating a lot, a vast majority of SyFy's (near-universally maligned for good reason) output, though there is curiosity as to whether they are capable of making something good and compulsive about their output's badness. Admittedly, SyFy do have a small group of watchable films and the occasional (big emphasis on that word) above average one, unfortunately outweighed by the lacklustre at best and often dreadful films they churn out.

To my surprise, 'Nightmare Shark' was actually better than expected. It's not great, or even particularly good, but of the killer shark films seen recently it's easily one of the better ones and one of SyFy's more watchable efforts (both their killer shark films and overall). It did have an interesting idea, slightly daft but quite unique, and while the potential is not quite lived up to it's hardly completely wasted.

'Nightmare Shark' does have some creepiness and there is some suspense because the idea is more original than most shark films and it is not as goofy as others. Doing it while not taking things too seriously that it becomes dreary. It does have fun parts too that aren't as silly as one would think and more respectful of its audience than many SyFy efforts.

Effort was made in 'Nightmare Shark' and it does show in some more professional and more atmospheric photography and at times better standard of acting, showing enthusiasm but surprisingly not going overboard. Some eerie sound, the pace isn't dull and the shark has both menace and personality.

Granted, 'Nightmare Shark' does have a number of faults, many of which are evident in a lot of SyFy's efforts. The story is muddled often, structurally it's a bit jumpy and confused due to too many things left vague, unfinished or underexplored. The execution of the overall concept lacked clarity and if the pace slowed down and with a little longer more clarity and logic and less head-scratching confusion and weirdness would have been apparent.

SyFy has always failed in the writing even in their best films, that's still the case, still a lot of awkward sounding dialogue that is hard to take at face value. Would have liked more developed characters and ones that were easier to get behind, for all the actors' best valiant efforts the face-palming decisions and behaviours remain. The special effects are less than special and generally actually pretty laughable, and the film is not without some sloppy editing, some ridiculousness and moments of melodrama.

Overall, watchable compared to most killer shark films seen recently and SyFy's work in general but problematic. 5/10 Bethany Cox