Shark Night

Last updated
Shark Night
Shark night 3d film poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by David R. Ellis
Written byWill Hayes
Jesse Studenberg
Produced byChris Briggs
Mike Fleiss
Lynette Howell
Starring Sara Paxton
Dustin Milligan
Chris Carmack
Katharine McPhee
Donal Logue
Joshua Leonard
Joel David Moore
CinematographyGary Capo
Edited by Dennis Virkler
Music by Graeme Revell
Production
companies
Sierra Pictures
Incentive Filmed Entertainment
Silverwood Films
Next Entertainment
Distributed by Rogue
Release date
  • September 2, 2011 (2011-09-02)(United States)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$25 million [1]
Box office$41.4 million [1]

Shark Night (advertised as Shark Night 3D) is a 2011 American horror film directed by David R. Ellis and written by Will Hayes and Jesse Studenberg. It stars Sara Paxton, Chris Carmack, Katharine McPhee, Alyssa Diaz, Dustin Milligan, and Joel David Moore. The film, which was negatively received by critics and grossed $40 million worldwide, was released in Real D 3D and Digital 3D. This was Ellis's final film before his death. [2]

Contents

Plot

Jess goes for a swim in the lake. Her boyfriend scares her and takes her bra off. He leaves and she goes to retrieve it. She is then attacked and devoured by a shark.

At Tulane University, Gordon and Nick are in their dorm when Malik bursts in. Malik tells them that he got a B+ on an exam and that they are going to Sara Palski’s house for the weekend to celebrate. As the three walk out, Malik says he is going to marry his girlfriend Maya. Maya pulls up in a car with Beth. Blake and Sara arrive. The kids drive toward the lake and stop at a bait shop. They meet Dennis Crim and Red. The seven college kids drive toward the lake until Sheriff Sabin appears. Malik, Maya, Nick, and Blake take the boat out to go water skiing. Malik is attacked by a shark and loses his arm. Maya, Nick, and Sara take him in the boat to the hospital. Malik is still bleeding from his arm. It bleeds into a hole in the boat, leaking blood into the water. A shark bumps the boat and devours Maya. The other three are forced to jump off the boat as the steering and brakes stop working.

By night, Red and Dennis appear and offer to take two people to the hospital. Beth and Gordon decide to go. While on the way Dennis explains that he and Red put the sharks in the lake. He then shoots Gordon in the arm. Gordon swims towards a tree and climbs it but is caught by a shark. Beth gets thrown into a net and gets attacked and killed by a pack of cookiecutter sharks.

Blake tells Malik that Maya is dead and in a burst of rage, Malik tries to kill the shark responsible. Nick notices a camera attached to the shark. Blake tells the others he is taking Malik to a hospital on Sarah’s WaveRunner. As they drive toward the hospital, Malik sees a great white shark following them. He sacrifices himself and is killed. As Blake tries to escape, the shark jumps out of the water and decapitates him.

Sheriff Sabin arrives at the house, where he notices the dead shark on the shore. He radios for backup. Nick passes out, knocking over a container of chicken noodle soup that the sheriff had. Sherman, the dog eats it. Sara overhears on the radio about Beth’s death. She and Nick are kidnapped by Dennis and the sheriff.

Nick wakes up tied to a chair. He panics as the sheriff explains that Sabin, Red, Dennis, and a bait store clerk were heavily influenced by Shark Week . They decided to record people getting brutally devoured by sharks. Sabin cuts Nick’s leg and spills gasoline. Nick uses his lighter to burn the rope to free himself. He then throws it at the sheriff who catches on fire. The sheriff falls into the lake and is devoured by a shark.

On the boat, Dennis chops up fish and dumps the blood and guts all over Sara who is in a shark cage. Nick jumps aboard with a dart gun aimed at Red’s head as he demands that Dennis bring Sarah back up. Dennis agrees, but then pulls out a knife and throws it, hitting Red in the heart. Nick throws the body overboard. Dennis and Nick fight. Nick knocks Dennis into the water and brings Sarah up out of the water. Dennis grabs a lever and pulls it re-submerging the cage.

The two start to fight again and a shark appears. Dennis gets his leg tangled up in the rope attached to the cage and is eaten. Nick dives down to retrieve a weapon from the ship and kills the sharks. Nick and Sara make it back to the boat along with the dog.

Cast

Production

Principal photography took place in the fall of 2010 in Louisiana around the Ark-La-Tex and at Caddo Lake in Uncertain, Texas. [3]

The sharks featured in the film were animatronic sharks built by Edge Innovations, who previously built sharks for movies such as Deep Blue Sea , Austin Powers in Goldmember , and even the Orca in Free Willy . According to Walt Conti, the head of Edge Innovations, two models for each shark were built, one "attacker" and one "swimmer", each of which required very different internal mechanisms. "Sharks are this total contrast of stealthy, cruising lurking and these intense bursts of power," Conti says. "We split those two behaviors into two different types of models, and optimized each to do one of those things best." [4]

Although the movie was always going to be titled Shark Night 3D overseas, Ellis fought for a name change for the North American release, at one point wanting to release the film under the title Untitled Shark Thriller 3D. [5] Bloody Disgusting would later compare the proposed title of the film to Ellis's previous film Snakes on a Plane (2006). [6]

Reception

Shark Night received negative reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reports that the film holds a 18% approval rating from 70 critics, with an average score of 3.42/10. The critics consensus reads, "A joyless excursion into the water that doesn't even produce good gore or nudity thanks to the neutered PG-13 rating." [7] The film has a normalized score of 22/100 on Metacritic, indicating generally unfavorable reviews. [8] The positive reviews praised the film for providing "dumb fun." [9] IMDb gave it an average 4/10 rating. [10] [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Jaws</i> (film) 1975 thriller film by Steven Spielberg

Jaws is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the 1974 novel by Peter Benchley. It stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, who, with the help of a marine biologist and a professional shark hunter, hunts a man-eating great white shark that attacks beachgoers at a summer resort town. Murray Hamilton plays the mayor, and Lorraine Gary portrays Brody's wife. The screenplay is credited to Benchley, who wrote the first drafts, and actor-writer Carl Gottlieb, who rewrote the script during principal photography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qʼuqʼumatz</span> Maya creator god of wind and rain

Qʼuqʼumatz was a god of wind and rain of the Postclassic Kʼicheʼ Maya. It was the Feathered Serpent that according to the Popol Vuh created the world and humanity, together with the god Tepeu. It carried the sun across the sky and down into the underworld and acted as a mediator between the various powers in the Maya cosmos. It is considered to be the equivalent of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl and of Kukulkan, of the Yucatec Maya.

<i>Jaws 3-D</i> 1983 American thriller film by Joe Alves

Jaws 3-D is a 1983 American horror film directed by Joe Alves and starring Dennis Quaid, Bess Armstrong, Simon MacCorkindale and Louis Gossett Jr. It is the second sequel to Steven Spielberg's Jaws and the third installment in the Jaws franchise. The film follows the Brody children from the previous films to SeaWorld, a Florida marine park with underwater tunnels and lagoons. As the park prepares for opening, a young great white shark infiltrates the park from the sea, seemingly attacking and killing the park's employees. Once the shark is captured, it becomes apparent that a second, much larger shark also entered the park and was the real culprit.

<i>Flipper</i> (1996 film) 1996 American film

Flipper is a 1996 American adventure film and a remake of the 1963 film of the same name. Written and directed by Alan Shapiro, the film stars Elijah Wood as a boy who has to spend the summer with his uncle, who lives on the Florida Gold Coast. Although he expects to have a boring summer, he encounters a dolphin whom he names Flipper and with whom he forms a friendship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916</span> Shark attacks in the US

The Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 were a series of shark attacks along the coast of New Jersey, in the United States, between July 1 and 12, 1916, in which four people were killed and one critically injured. The incidents occurred during a deadly summer heat wave and polio epidemic in the United States that drove thousands of people to the seaside resorts of the Jersey Shore. Since 1916, scholars have debated which shark species was responsible and the number of animals involved, with the great white shark and the bull shark most frequently cited.

<i>Red Water</i> 2003 American TV series or program

Red Water is a 2003 American made-for-television horror film starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Kristy Swanson, Gideon Emery and Coolio. When former oil rig worker turned fishing captain John Sanders agrees to help when his ex-wife's company in extracting oil upriver and a group of thugs working for a Jamaican gangster search for $3 million buried underwater in the sam bayou, a large man-eating bull shark finds its way in the river and wreaks havoc. The film originally premiered on TBS Superstation on August 17, 2003.

<i>Snakehead Terror</i> Canadian TV series or program

Snakehead Terror is a 2004 Canadian-American made-for-television science fiction-horror film and is one of two Sci Fi Channel films based on the snakehead fish incident in a Crofton, Maryland, pond. The other film is Frankenfish. Swarm of the Snakehead is an independently produced creature comedy based on the same Crofton incident, and the only one of the three actually filmed in Maryland. All three films are based on real fish called snakeheads.

<i>Crocodile</i> (2000 film) 2000 film

Crocodile is a 2000 American direct-to-video horror film directed by Tobe Hooper. The film involves a group of college students on a houseboat for spring break who stumble across a nest of eggs, and unknowingly enrage a large female Nile crocodile that stalks and kills them one by one. It was followed by Crocodile 2: Death Swamp, a film with no relation to the plot of the original beyond featuring a giant crocodile.

<i>Open Season</i> (2006 film) 2006 film by Roger Allers and Jill Culton

Open Season is a 2006 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Sony Pictures Animation, as its debut film, and Columbia Pictures. It was directed by Roger Allers and Jill Culton and co-directed by Anthony Stacchi, from a screenplay by Nat Mauldin and the writing team of Steve Bencich and Ron J. Friedman, and a screen story by Culton and Stacchi, based on an original idea by Steve Moore and John B. Carls. The film features an ensemble voice cast starring Martin Lawrence, Ashton Kutcher, Gary Sinise, and Debra Messing. Its plot follows Boog, a domesticated grizzly bear, who is let go into the woods, and teams up with a one-antlered mule deer named Elliot to return back to his old home before open season starts.

<i>Lake Placid 2</i> 2007 film by David Flores

Lake Placid 2 is a 2007 American made-for-television comedy horror film directed by David Flores. It is a sequel to Lake Placid (1999) and the second installment in the Lake Placid film series, telling the story of man-eating crocodiles who terrorize the local community. The film premiered on April 28, 2007 on the Sci-Fi Channel and was released direct to video on January 29, 2008.

<i>Piranha 3D</i> 2010 film by Alexandre Aja

Piranha 3D is a 2010 American 3D horror comedy film that serves as a remake of the comedy horror film Piranha (1978) and an entry in the Piranha film series. Directed by Alexandre Aja and written by Pete Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg, the film stars Elisabeth Shue, Adam Scott, Jerry O'Connell, Ving Rhames, Jessica Szohr, Steven R. McQueen, Christopher Lloyd and Richard Dreyfuss. During spring break on Lake Victoria, a popular waterside resort, an underground tremor releases hundreds of prehistoric, carnivorous piranhas into the lake. Local cop Julie Forester must join forces with a band of unlikely strangers—though they are badly outnumbered—to destroy the ravenous creatures before everyone becomes fish food.

<i>Lake Placid 3</i> 2010 film by Griff Furst

Lake Placid 3 is a 2010 American made-for-television horror comedy film directed by Griff Furst. It is a sequel to Lake Placid 2 (2007) and the third installment in the Lake Placid film series. The film premiered on August 21, 2010, on Syfy, and was released to DVD later that year.

<i>Cruel Jaws</i> 1995 film

Cruel Jaws is a 1995 Italian direct-to-video horror film directed by Bruno Mattei under the pseudonym William Snyder. The film stars Richard Dew and David Luther, and was shot in Florida, including at the Theater of the Sea marine theme park in Islamorada.

<i>Blood Surf</i> 2000 American film

Blood Surf is a 2000 horror film directed by James D.R. Hickox. It was released in the United States on June 26, 2001 but was released earlier in some countries. The plot is about a group of friends who hit upon the idea of blood surfing: spreading chum in the water in order to attract sharks, then hopping on a surfboard and riding through the middle of the pack. As they are filming their promotional documentary, the fun gets interrupted by a 30 ft (9.1 m) long saltwater crocodile that begins attacking everyone in the expedition. It was the last Trimark Pictures produced film to be released, as Trimark was folded into Lions Gate Entertainment a few months prior.

<i>2-Headed Shark Attack</i> 2012 film by Christopher Ray

2-Headed Shark Attack is a 2012 American independent action film with an ensemble cast by The Asylum, released on January 31, 2012 in the United States. Directed by Christopher Ray, the film stars Carmen Electra, Charlie O'Connell, Brooke Hogan, Christina Bach, David Gallegos and Corinne Nobili. The film premiered on September 8, 2012 on Syfy.

<i>Lake Placid: The Final Chapter</i> 2012 film by Don Michael Paul

Lake Placid: The Final Chapter is a 2012 American made-for-television action horror comedy film directed by Don Michael Paul, written by David Reed and stars Elisabeth Röhm, Yancy Butler, Paul Nicholls and Robert Englund. It is a sequel to Lake Placid 3 (2010) and the fourth installment in the Lake Placid film series, telling the story of killer crocodiles who terrorize the local community. The film premiered on September 29, 2012, by Syfy and was released on DVD on February 19, 2013. As the title suggests, it was originally intended to be the final installment in the series, but was followed by Lake Placid vs. Anaconda, a crossover with Anaconda film series in 2015.

<i>Bait 3D</i> 2012 3D horror disaster film

Bait 3D is a 2012 3D disaster horror film directed by Kimble Rendall based on the screenplay by John Kim and Russell Mulcahy. It featured Sharni Vinson, Phoebe Tonkin, Xavier Samuel, Julian McMahon, Cariba Heine, Alex Russell, Lincoln Lewis, Alice Parkinson, and Dan Wyllie. The film centers around a group of people who try to escape a grocery store, submerged as a result of a freak tsunami, while being hunted by bloodthirsty great white sharks. The film was released on 20 September 2012 in Australia.

<i>47 Meters Down: Uncaged</i> 2019 American survival horror film directed by Johannes Roberts

47 Meters Down: Uncaged is a 2019 survival horror film directed by Johannes Roberts and written by Roberts and Ernest Riera.

<i>5-Headed Shark Attack</i> 2017 film

5-Headed Shark Attack is a 2017 American made-for-television action film produced by The Asylum in association with Syfy. The film is the third installment in the Multi-Headed Shark Attack film series, following 2-Headed Shark Attack and 3-Headed Shark Attack and preceding 6-Headed Shark Attack, with this film featuring both a four-headed and five-headed shark.

Maneater is a 2022 American horror thriller film directed by Justin Lee, starring Nicky Whelan, Shane West, Trace Adkins, Branscombe Richmond and Jeff Fahey.

References

  1. 1 2 "Shark Night 3D (2011)". Box Office Mojo. 2011-11-24. Retrieved 2012-08-25.
  2. "David R Ellis, director of Snakes on a Plane, dies". BBC News. 2013-01-08. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
  3. Roy, Carolyn (June 24, 2011). "Filmed in Hollywood South: Shark Night 3D trailer released". KSLA . Raycom Media . Retrieved July 26, 2011.
  4. "Shark Night's FX Blows Jaws Out of the Water". 2 September 2011.
  5. Broddeser-Akner, Claude (8 February 2011). "Snakes on a Plane Director Fighting to Call His Next Film Untitled 3D Shark Thriller". Vulture. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  6. "'Shark Night 3D' Could Be Titled 'Untitled 3D Shark Thriller'?!". Bloody Disgusting . February 8, 2011. Retrieved August 23, 2016.
  7. "Shark Night 3D". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved October 28, 2019.
  8. "Shark Night 3D". Metacritic . Retrieved September 4, 2011.
  9. "Shark Night 3D". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved September 7, 2011.
  10. Shark Night (2011) - IMDb , retrieved 2022-04-09
  11. Shark Night (2011) - IMDb , retrieved 2022-04-09