Shark Kill

When a great white shark is seen lurking nearby an oil rig in which maintenance divers are working to unblock clogged oil lines, a marine biologist tries desperately to warn the authorities before a fatal accident occurs. Naturally, such an encounter does occur, leading to an all-out offensive to kill the rogue predator which results in a harrowing night adrift in the sea for the marine biologist, and his macho companion after their less than seaworthy vessel is carelessly scuttled by a booze boat.

"Shark Kill" contains themes that bare great similarity in some respects to both "Jaws", and also the contemporary "Open Water" (the latter of which managed to develop the isolation theme of the central characters, to a degree that this film had the opportunity to do, but squandered). Disappointingly, it does neither justice as an imitation nor an influence, with such a rapid narrative, roughly hewn characterisations and transitory climax that could have been developed into a compelling and suspenseful highlight. As it is, the climax in which the two stricken adventurers are left to run a terrifying gauntlet in the isolated open water of night, while a 15-foot great white stalks in the darkness beneath, is a promising scenario, the treatment is all-too-brief and abruptly resolved.

Leads Richard Yniguez and Phillip Clark make an odd, but congenial couple, while David Huddleston's key supporting role as a shonky boat owner, commands a peculiar emphasis for such a short movie. Jennifer Warren's character (as Clark's love interest) is totally neglected, and eventually, just disappears without explanation. Nevertheless, the dialogue is competent and the performances agreeable if under-developed. Had the movie been afforded another twenty or so minutes of plot and character development (most of which reserved for the engaging climax), "Shark Kill" might not be the easily dismissed obscurity that it remains today.

Some promising aspects, but ultimately, at barely 72 minutes from head to tail, credits included, it's unique and suspenseful potential is somewhat wasted.

"Rick Dayner" (Phillip Clark) is a marine-biologist who is working for an oil company and happens to see a great white shark in the same waters where divers are trying to fix a pipe near an offshore oil rig. Although the divers are pulled up they choose to ignore his advice afterward and continue their work. This results in Rick quitting his job in anger. Not long afterward one of the divers is killed and another badly injured. This not only halts all work on the underwater pipe but the oil company also puts out a $20,000 reward for whoever can kill the shark. More than a few people are interested to include Rick and a man named "Cabo Mendoza" (Richard Yniguez) who just happens to be the brother of the diver severely injured by the shark. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a basic shark movie which I suppose was adequate enough for the time spent. The special effects were minimal and all of the shark footage looked like it came from a National Geographic documentary. Likewise, the script was just as basic and the character development needed some work as well. Still, for a made-for-television movie it wasn't too bad and for that reason I have rated this film as only slightly below average.

Shark Kill (1976)

** (out of 4)

Average made-for-TV movie is clearly trying to cash in on Spielberg's JAWS, which was released the previous year. In this film a Great White shark is taking a bite out of people in a coastal town so a couple men rent a boat and go out to kill it for the $20,000 bounty. The quality of this film is pretty much what you would expect from a made-for-TV movie from the 1970's. While it was clearly influenced by JAWS it isn't that bad of a rip off and overall it fits nicely into the decades "man vs. nature" movies. The ending has our two heroes fall into the water and their boat being destroyed. As soon as this happened I couldn't help but think of OPEN WATER so one does get curious to know if the makers of that film had seen this one as children. The movie features a lot of stock footage of the shark, which is good and bad. It's good because the footage is actually great looking with wonderful close ups of the shark. It's bad because it just doesn't mix in too well with the rest of the film and especially during the attacks, which you aren't ever able to see. The ending of the film was pretty much a letdown and I'm still suffering from a "WTF" moment as it still hasn't really made much sense to me. The performances are decent, the direction average and the story is about as simple as you can get and that pretty much sums up the entire film. If you're a fan of this type of film then check it out but others beware.