Monster Shark (Italian: Shark - Rosso nell'oceano[1]) is a 1984 science fiction-horror film directed by Lamberto Bava. It was also released in various countries as Devil Fish, Monster from the Red Ocean, Devouring Waves and Shark: Red in the Ocean.
The film takes place along a stretch of coastline somewhere in Florida, where a local tourist spot has become plagued by a mysterious marine creature. Unbeknownst to them, the monster is the product of a secret military experiment; it is a genetic hybrid mutated from a common octopus and the prehistoric Dunkleosteus. Unfortunately, the creature has broken loose and is now feeding on swimmers and tourists swimming or sailing along the coast. As the monster is only an infant, it will continue to grow if it is left to hunt much longer.
A team of scientists led by a scientist named Peter and his colleague, Dr. Stella Dickens, are trying to find the creature and stop it; meanwhile, a group of military scientists are trying to stop the scientists, as the experiment was classified military business. The creature slowly picks off both groups while they try to track it down. They eventually find it hiding in the Everglades, corner it in shallow waters, and kill it with repeated blasts from flamethrowers.
TV Guide called it "wholly amateurish" and criticized the film's unconvincing monster.[3] Star Michael Sopkiw attributes the film's flaws and negative reviews to the production's limited budget, saying that Lamberto Bava was a great director.[4][unreliable source?]
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Under its alternative title of Devil Fish, the film was featured on episode #911 of the movie-mocking television series Mystery Science Theater 3000, airing on the Sci-Fi Channel on August 15, 1998. One scene of this film contains a brief glimpse of a male character's genitals, the show censored by superimposing the MST3K logo.[5] Writer / performer Kevin Murphy writes the European cast, the Florida setting, and small bathing suits "gives us license to Euro-bash until the sun goes down." He also mocks the Coast Guard for being involved in the production.[6]
Paste writer Jim Vorel placed the episode at #147[a] in his ranking of episodes from MST3K's first twelve seasons. Vorel calls the movie a "comprehensive course on bad film editing," probably the most humorously bad editing of any MST3K movie. "It’s legitimately the highlight of a film that is otherwise a real slog," Vorel writes. The editing and visuals combine into a whole "so atrocious that it’s often difficult to tell what is happening during any sequence where the monster is on screen."[7]
The MST3K version of the film was included as part of the Mystery Science Theater 3000, Volume XIX DVD collection, released by Shout! Factory on November 9, 2010. Special features with the film include the movie's theatrical trailer. The other episodes in the four-disc set include Robot Monster (#107), Bride of the Monster (#423), and Devil Doll (#818).[8]
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