Official Synopsis:
When people go missing in the coastal town of Full Moon Bay, fisherman Daniel Wilder (John Schneider, Smallville) discovers a swarm of mutant Great White sharks, forty strong, cutting through the waters with one horrifying purpose - to kill. As tourist season quickly becomes feeding time, Daniel enlists the help of his wife (Daryl Hannah, Kill Bill) and a marine biologist (Heather McComb, Party of Five) to save the locals and bring calm before the swarm.

  
Our Take:
Sometimes I feel like a drug addict when it comes to shark movies. Even though I know nothing good can possibly come out of watching one, I just don’t seem to be able to help myself. Wave a DVD with a shark on the cover in front of me and I’m powerless.

Still, Shark Swarm boasts a cast that includes John Schneider, Daryl Hannah, F. Murray Abraham, and Armand Assante, so I had hopes that maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as almost every other cheap, direct-to-DVD shark movie I’ve been subjected to over the past few years. And whaddaya know? Turns out, it’s not half bad.

Okay, Shark Swarm is nothing great, and it’s really long. I mean, really long. Apparently it was a mini-series rather than a TV movie, because it’s near three-hour running time is a little bloated. But in that time, you get a pack of radiation-crazed sharks killing pretty much everyone in a small, not-even-a-little-unlike-Amity-from-Jaws coastal town. And I do mean everybody. In fact, by halfway through the movie, I was really wondering who the sharks were going to eat next because it seemed like they had already munched on literally every supporting actor in town. Of course, that’s what makes the film so much fun. Kudos to the producers, also, for using CGI sharks. I’d rather have my sharks look a little bit fake but at least somewhat cool rather than see 30-year old stock footage intermingled with new material.

There are no extra features on the Shark Swarm DVD.

As part of Genius Entertainment’s ManEater series, Shark Swarm is a cut above most of the shark and creature films that have come down the pike lately. If you’re like me and you need your shark fix, you could do a lot worse than this.

Overall Picture:
Movie: C+
DVD: C

- Mike Spring

Editor