Some “fresh” meat from…. 3 years ago. Yum.
Another one i randomly bought new for cheap on DVD via Amazon, sight unseen, because my hunger for shark movies it’s apparently endless.
Written and directed by Justin Lee, Maneater’s plot is pretty much the usual affair when talking modern shark movies: a group of friends go on vacation, board a boat that brings them to a remote deserted island where to get their party on, shark happens and it’s one that developed a knack (leave Mark Cerny alone) for human flesh.
This time we don’t have teens, but people in the 30s that have been married or just concluded a long education path, which is something different, i guess, especially since the movie doesn’t have the asshole that fucks everything that moves, or cheating bullshit to pad out the human drama parts, with a subplot involving an old fisherman that harbours vengeance as great white sharks took not only his wife but also recently his daughter.
It’s exactly what you’d think it is, in terms of plot there are no twists or surprises.
One of the most commons insults hurled at the movie online it is “looking like a Hallmark movie”, which prompt me to google it, since only Americans know immediatly that’s a tv channel, and – more relevant – it refers to the style of that channel’s output being mostly holiday fluff banking on nostalgia and cheese, but honestly i think it looks alright for a direct-to-video/streaming shark flick, i’ve seen plenty of worse shit packaged and printed on a DVD.
Though some of the editing it’s terrible, some of the effects obvious as heck, the musical selection it’s… not great, fitting but not good, made worse as often the audio mixing is so bad the music overrides the dialogues, but the latter is one-off thing that you might not even notice, and it’s still nowhere as horrendous and crippling as it was in Jurassic Shark.
Talking about the shark itself, it’s cheap CG, what you’d expect, fine, beats papermaciè, honestly it’s a bit better than average, but i still wonder why use CG effects for shots that do not require it, like basic stuff that really doesn’t cost or take that much more time to do with people or real locations.
On the positive side of things, the movie lives up to the title as there’s a decent amount of kills by the shark, and they are mostly shown in some detail, instead of the “duck underwater and pour fake blood instead of showing anything of the actual attack” strategy often used by these flicks.
The characters aren’t detestable, at all, the acting it’s mediocre (hence passable, especially for a direct-to-streaming and/or video release), though the actress playing what’s essentially the protagonist really is the one bringing the lesser performance, as she always has this feel of not giving too much of a shit, regardless if context calls for it or not.
Even so, despite its fairly generic plot and its flaws (including lots of the kills being stacked in the same 5 minutes of footage), Maneater manages to be fairly entertaining, somewhat cheesy fun despite not being played as a comedy or spoof, but still, it’s an okay shark flick, kinda unmemorable in terms of plot and characters, but it’s fine enough to kill some time as its not overlong, it’s competently put together, presentation it’s very solid for a low budget film and will provide some okay shark kills for the hardened genre buffs to enjoy.
Could do far worse, could do far better, but given the average quality of shark flicks, a average one is fine too, especially if made in earnest. Even with a clumsy attempt at sequel bait at the end.
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