''Shark Night'' (advertised as ''Shark Night 3D'') is a 2011 American

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

directed by David R. Ellis and written by Will Hayes and Jesse Studenberg. It stars

Sara Paxton Sara Paxton (born April 25, 1988) is an American actress and singer. She began acting at an early age, appearing in minor roles in both films and television shows before rising to fame in early October 2002. She played Sarah Tobin from '' Greet ...

Chris Carmack Chris Carmack (born December 22, 1980) is an American actor, singer, and former fashion model. He is known for his roles in three popular television shows—the teen drama series '' The O.C.'' (2003–2004) as Luke Ward, the country music drama ...

Katharine McPhee Katharine Hope McPhee (born March 25, 1984) is an American actress and singer. In May 2006, she was the runner-up on the fifth season of ''American Idol.'' Her eponymous debut album was released on RCA Records in January 2007, and debuted at n ...

Alyssa Diaz Alyssa Elaine Diaz (born September 7, 1985) is an American actress. She is known for her roles on television, such as Celia Ortega on the CBS daytime soap opera ''As the World Turns'', Jasmine on the ABC Family Channel, ABC Family series ''The N ...

Dustin Milligan Dustin Wallace Milligan (born July 28, 1985) is a Canadian actor best known as Jack Snowman in ''Hot Frosty'', Ted Mullens on ''Schitt's Creek'', Ethan Ward on ''90210 (TV series), 90210'', Tom Cummings in ''X Company'', and Josh Carter on ''Ruth ...

, and

Joel David Moore Joel David Moore (born September 25, 1977) is an American character actor and director. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Moore studied acting in college before relocating to Los Angeles to pursue a film career. His first major role was as Owen ...

. The film, which was negatively received by critics and grossed $40 million worldwide, was released in

RealD 3D RealD 3D is a digital stereoscopic projection technology made and sold by RealD. It is currently the most widely used technology for watching 3D films in theaters. Worldwide, RealD 3D is installed in more than 26,500 auditoriums by approximatel ...

and

Digital 3D Digital 3D is a non-specific 3D standard in which films, television shows, and video games are presented and shot in digital 3D technology or later processed in digital post-production to add a 3D effect. One of the first studios to use digital ...

. This was Ellis's final film before his death.

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 shark The cookiecutter shark (''Isistius brasiliensis''), also called the cigar shark, is a species of small squaliform shark in the family Dalatiidae. This shark lives in warm, oceanic waters worldwide, particularly near islands, and has been reco ...

s. 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 The great white shark (''Carcharodon carcharias''), also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is a species of large Lamniformes, mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major ocea ...

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 Shark Week is an annual week-long programming block on the Discovery Channel focusing on shark-themed programming. It originally premiered on July 17, 1988. The block is featured annually in the summer, and was originally devoted to conservati ...

''. 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

Sand Tiger Shark The sand tiger shark (''Carcharias taurus''), grey/gray nurse shark (in Australia), spotted ragged-tooth shark (in South Africa), or blue-nurse sand tiger, is a species of shark that inhabits subtropical and temperate waters worldwide. It inhabit ...

. 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

as Sara Palski *

as Nick LaDuca *

as Dennis Crim *

as Beth Mazza *

as Gordon Guthrie *

Donal Logue Donal Francis Logue (born February 27, 1966) is a Canadian-American film and television actor. He played the starring role of Sean Finnerty on the sitcom '' Grounded for Life'' (2001–2005), and Detective Harvey Bullock on the DC Comics adapta ...

as Sheriff Greg Sabin *

Joshua Leonard Joshua Granville Leonard (born June 17, 1975) is an American actor, producer, writer, and director, known for his role in ''The Blair Witch Project'' (1999). He has since starred in films such as '' Madhouse'' (2004), '' The Shaggy Dog'' (2006), ' ...

as Red *

Sinqua Walls Sinqua Walls (born April 6, 1985) is an American actor known for appearing in ''Friday Night Lights'', ''The Secret Life of the American Teenager'', '' American Soul,'' and ''White Men Can't Jump''.Sinqua WallsUSF Guard Bio/ref> Early life and ...

as Malik Henry *

as Maya Valdez *

Chris Zylka Chris Zylka (born Christopher Michael Settlemire; May 9, 1985) is an American actor and model, known for his roles as Brigg Jenner in MTV's ''My Super Psycho Sweet 16'' film trilogy (2009–2012), Blake in the film '' Shark Night'' (2011), Flash ...

as Blake Hammond * Jimmy Lee Jr. as Carl * Damon Lipari as Keith * Christine Quinn as Jess * Kelly Sry as Wonsuk * Tyler Bryan as Kyle

Production

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

took place in the fall of 2010 in

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

around the

Ark-La-Tex The Ark-La-Tex (a portmanteau of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas; also stylized as Arklatex or ArkLaTex) is a socio-economic region where the Southern United States, Southern U.S. states of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas join together. ...

and at

Caddo Lake Caddo Lake () is a lake and bayou (wetland) on the border between Texas and Louisiana, in northern Harrison County and southern Marion County in Texas and western Caddo Parish in Louisiana. The lake is named after the Caddoans or Caddo, ...

Uncertain, Texas Uncertain is a city in Harrison County, Texas, Harrison County, Texas, United States. According to the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the city population was 94, down from 150 at the 2000 census. In 2020 United States census, 2020, it had ...

. 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 ''Austin Powers in Goldmember'' is a 2002 American spy comedy film directed by Jay Roach. It is the third and final installment in the ''Austin Powers'' film series and stars Mike Myers in four different roles: Austin Powers, Dr. Evil, Goldme ...

'', and even the Orca in ''

Free Willy ''Free Willy'' is a 1993 American Adventure film, adventure Drama (film and television), drama film, directed by Simon Wincer, produced by Lauren Shuler Donner and Jennie Lew Tugend, written by Keith A. Walker and Corey Blechman from a story by ...

''. 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." 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''. Bloody Disgusting would later compare the proposed title of the film to Ellis's previous film '' Snakes on a Plane'' (2006). "In the End" by Fade is the theme song for the Japanese version.https://md-news.pia.jp/pia/news.do?newsCd=201207050003

Reception

''Shark Night'' received negative reviews from critics.

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reports that the film holds a 19% approval rating from 75 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." The film has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 22 out of 100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.

References

External links