Rogue Cinema - Shark Kill (1976)

Shark Kill (1976) - By Duane L. Martin
Posted on Saturday, March 01 @ Mountain Standard Time by Duane

Jaws was a pretty cool film, and in the same way that lots of cheap sci-fi movied popped up to take advantage of the Star Wars craze, this movie was quickly thrown together to take advantage of the Jaws craze. What's the difference between this movie and Jaws? Jaws became a worldwide phenomenon, while this was nothing more than a cheap movie that aired on 70's television and was then forgotten. That is, forgotten until Wild Eye Releasing dug up an old copy of it and stuck it on a DVD so we could all relive yet another 70's television movie.

But what's this one about you may ask? Well... There's a shark, and it kills one or two people, and a marine biologist and an oil rig pipeline maintenance diver team up to try to kill it before it can kill again. That's pretty much it.

Unlike Maneaters Are Loose!, this film didn't have anyone I could recognize in it. As far as I know, none of these people were ever big stars of the era, although I might be mistaken on that. I don't think so though.

While the story was ok, I was disappointed with the lack of effort put into this film as far as the shark was concerned. Most, if not all of the shark shots were little more than stock footage of a shark, and the kill count was pretty low.

The real problem with this release however was not the film itself, but the quality of the transfer. Much like Maneaters Are Loose!, this film was probably sitting around in some warehouse cubby somewhere aging year after year and getting worse with each passing day. The visual quality is not only poor, but there are dropouts in it as well. That said, the DVD is watchable, and if you like old 70's television movies you can check it out, but you should know going in not to expect much as far as the visuals.

Honestly, this movie fell short for me, and you can tell it was quickly thrown together, but it never really rose above just being ok. If they had just focused on the shark more and had it stalk and kill more people, it would have made the whole thing much more frightning. As it is, this one just comes of as another bland television movie from an era that was plagued by them and left the good ones struggling to get the recognition they deserved.

If you'd like to find out more about this film or to pick up a copy for yourself, you can check it out on the Wild Eye Releasing website at http://www.wildeyereleasing.com.