When rednecks on a fishing trip kill a great white shark, its spirit comes back for revenge, and soon turns its sights on the town of Smallport. Teenage Ava, her younger sister Cicely and friend Blaise witness the start of the ghost shark's rampage but the authorities don't believe their story. With the help of a crotchety lighthouse keeper named Finch the teens discover that the spectral shark can hunt wherever there's water, and that the town's dark past may provide the clues they need to defeat it. When rednecks on a fishing trip kill a great white shark, its spirit comes back for revenge, and soon turns its sights on the town of Smallport. even though they are highly enjoyable subjects in the film world, sharks are kind of limited if you think about it. Obviously they are confined to water, so the killer sharks are limited to that type of atmosphere. Well Ghost Shark is a Syfy film so you know this is going to be a different type of shark film. Let's just say Ghost Shark is quite different and also entertaining.<br/><br/>The movie was shot in Louisiana and is set in a coastal town. The town is having strange and mysterious killings around water that might be caused by a shark or a different kind of shark. As the story unfolds, we learned that the shark is a ghost shark and the story is primarily told through a local drunken sea captain named Blaise Shaw (Dave Randolph- Mayhem Davis).<br/><br/>Obviously this is a very dumb concept if you think about it. A ghost is somehow a shark that is out to kill people? That said, once you accept this rather strange concept, the movie offers more than you might think. The shark has blue tints and good CGI. It's also a shark that can attack outside of the ocean creating different kill scenes in a slip'n slide, a pool party and in the middle of the street from an open fire hydrant. These kill scenes are new and very unique and you can be sure we will never see this again. The captain's story about the ghost shark really just kind of comes out of nowhere and there is very questionable acting here. There is good effort in the storytelling which brings us some different atmosphere and settings including caves, a maritime museum and a lighthouse.<br/><br/>Obviously the ghost shark is entertaining but the characters are good too. Ava (Mackenzie Rosman) is a bratty, self-centered character who does what it takes to confront and kill the shark. Again Blaise is the sea captain and a hot-shot guy who knows things about this shark and is a very likable and entertaining character. Cicely (Sloane Coe) is a young girl that does not get her way because of her young age but she still tries to be the best she can be without being unlikable. Cameron (Jaren Mitchell) is one laid back character and Mick (Shawn C. Phillips) is one large guy who offers some pretty good comic relief.<br/><br/>Unlike most Syfy movies including Sharknado, Ghost Shark pays homage to other films including Jaws with a July 4th setting, seashore atmosphere and the shark obviously. There is also a kill scene in a water-filled bathtub like Nightmare On Elm Street. The eerie lighthouse has vibes of Adrienne Barbeau from The Fog. This film's homage to other films is one reason why Ghost Shark works so well as a film.<br/><br/>The movie does drag through most of the entire third act and as with any Syfy film, it would probably be better on the big screen. Still, not as many Syfy films are this watchable nor as smart as this one. Ghost Shark is one fun movie and one of the best Syfy movies I have seen. I came across this film while watching UniMás, a Spanish-language channel available over the airwaves. This B-movie followed the "A-movie" "Mission Impossible III"; I cannot tell if the network aired that in memory of Philip Seymour Hoffman given that he died months ago. But I could tell I was looking at some hideous piece of work (if not a piece of something else) as there were no promos leading up to it & no, um, "banner spots" (or what I'd call "'Ghost Shark' will be right back after these messages.") Already the storyline was looking ludicrous as in the cold open, the living shark gets killed in a medieval way w/ a harpoon, a gun, & even a grenade. Yet it swims to some cave & now its fluorescent blue ghost version kills its aggressors (& of course the raucous rampage doesn't stop from there). Notice that the movie presents the cast in alphabetical order, which I'd assume is because "Ghost Shark" has no "stars." & to me, the only 2 recognizable actors were Richard Moll (whose goofball role of Bull Shannon in "Night Court" now looks more dignified), & Mackenzie Rosman of "7th Heaven." Keep in mind she was just a kid alongside the stunning Jessica Biel. But Rosman certainly matured into quite the lady herself in Maxim Magazine. But I can't help but think that's how she got the major role in "Ghost Shark" while Biel was in better films, or just merely married Justin Timberlake. If you watch enough monster films, you'd recognize the tropes, which means trends, such as the large cast (including many girls in bikinis) whose minimal purpose is to be a visual feast for the eyes & then an actual feast for the eponymous monster. There's also the usual stock characters such as the determined teens set to stop the monster conflicting against the skeptical sheriff & his equally obstructive bureaucrat fellow (or foe). Before I end, I must point out a scene where one person dies as the ghost shark splits him into left & right halves. The witnesses should have looked either shocked or prone to vomit at such graphic gore but only appeared, um, miffed, like a newscaster reporting about the latest homicide. That's what I call "dull surprise," something I learned from "Mystery Science Theater 3000," which has helped my tolerance for bad cinema. In conclusion, "Ghost Shark" tried to imitate the hype of Syfy's "Sharknado." But instead, such imitation proved to be offensively repetitive to its audience. That's probably why a movie that was on Syfy just last year reappeared in UniMás on May 2014. "Sharknado" was trashy but cool. "Ghost Shark" is just trash.
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344 weeks ago