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Back in his days in the Philippines, Sonny's (Richard Jaeckel) life was
saved by sharks, and he got a special medal from a shaman of a
shark-worshipping tribe for it that identifies him as a friend of
shark-kind. These days, he's living on an island off Key West, Forida,
where he pretty much mingles with the local sharks whom he feeds through a
hole in his cabin floor. He's also big on shark preservation, but goes
about it mostly by brutally killing shark hunters and feeding them to his
friends. And he has become fascinated by Karen (Jennifer Bishop), the
underwater dancer at the local bar. One day he sees her almost getting
raped by local thugs Pete (Harold Sakata) and Charlie (John Davis
Chandler) and saves her from them, then shows her his island and his
"friends" - and when she tells this to her husband Barney (Buffy
Dee), owner of the bar she dances at, he has the good idea to get a shark
from him to be included in her act - with her being protected from the
creature by invisible plastic of course. Thing is, Barney's not playing
fair and sends out supersonic soundwaves to drive the shark wild, much to
Sonny's dismay, who tries to force Barney to return the shark - but he's
told off by Karen instead, which breaks his heart as he thought she'd
understand him. This of course triggers something in him, and thus he goes
on a rampage, killing Pete and Charlie after he has learned they're
selling sharks by the dozen as souvenirs, a scientist (Ben Kronen) who has
wronged him and one of his sharks, also Barney, and he doesn't even stop
at hurting Karen in a very topical way - so it's only a matter of time
until shark-killing humankind sets its collective eyes on him, too ... Obviously,
this film was inspired by the success of last year's blockbuster Jaws,
and frankly, it's only fitting that William Grefé, who has been making
Florida-set and maritime-based creature features for 10 or so years, would
put his own spin on shark horror - and while in terms of pure craftmanship
and budget, this movie is no match for Spielberg's film, it is on the
other hand a film that shows much more sympathy for the sharks themselves,
and it actually uses real sharks to portray its sharks. And the result is
... well, not really a great film, but it plays a nice variation on the
animal horror genre by actually (and also more accurately) making us
humans the real monsters, within the genre formula, with all mainstays
firmly in place - and somehow, at least for horror afficionados, this is
just nice to watch for a change.
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