SHARKSPLOITATION (2023)

CHOMP CHOMP, BITCHES!!! 

Ooops, sorry, that was my battle cry for last April's booktube challenge when I was on the Blue Barracuda team.  But hey, it applies here for this really great documentary which debuted on Shudder this past summer.  Perfect for summer viewing and that's when I first watched it but there's NEVER a bad time to watch a doc on wacky JAWS rip-off shark horror movies.  Is there?  This here doc shows the history of sharks in folk culture, mythology and finally the movies with the early silent film depictions to things like THE SEA BAT (1930) all the way up to the first summer blockbuster that was JAWS

and all the JAWS rip-offs that followed ending with the current spate of absolutely ridiculous shark movies kicked into the stratosphere with the Asylum's SHARKNADO and beyond.  You just can't beat wacky sharksploitation horror movies and I've watched several this year before this documentary even came out;

stuff like SHARKULA and SHARKS OF THE CORN and even PUPPET SHARK (some of which I talk about in this very Halloween Countdown already!).  The really REALLY nice part about this documentary is not only the coverage of things like ORCA (not a shark but adjacent) and MAKO: JAWS OF DEATH but there are also marine biologists who are also sharksploitation horror movie fans who give on camera interviews about the true facts of sharks as well as their fave horror shark flicks. 

Marine biologist & horror fan Vicky Vásquez

Horror scholars and experts like Dr. Emily Zarka are on board as well as filmmakers like Roger Corman, Joe Dante, Mario van Peebles and the Sharknado auteur Anthony C. Ferrante and beloved schockmeister Mark Polonia. 

That scamp Joe Dante

Wendy Benchley, conservationist and widow of JAWS novelist Peter Benchley has a lot of on screen time and that's wonderful!  She's a joy. 

Wendy Benchley

Joe Alves, who worked on the first three JAWS movies is on hand too. 

Joe Alves & Bruce

I mean, there's a ton to love about this documentary.  If there is one tiny quibble I have with the documentary, it's that it may go on a tad too long at the end where it drops all the movie talk and veers more heavily into the conservation aspect which, while I'm totally on board with conservation, I think it would've been better sprinkled throughout the doc instead of in one big lump at the end.  That aside, no horror fan/sharksploitation wacko can afford to miss this movie.  You've probably all seen it already but I had to wait until the Countdown to Halloween to talk about it . . . . so go watch it again!!!!  Or you just might get bit!