Raiders of the Lost Shark

Director - Scott Patrick (Rise of the Black Bat)
Starring - Dan Desmarais (Hit by Lightning), Peter Whittaker (My Fair Zombie), and Kitty Kamieniecki (The Wife He Met Online)
Release Date - 2014
Genre - Horror/Comedy
Tagline - "Sharks, why did it have to be sharks"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 2):

     I love a good parody.  I have seen so many in my life and a good portion of them have brought about a laugh or two.  I grew up watching parodies with the Scary Movie franchise getting it's start.  These films spawned an endless number of parodies but people fail to realize that parodies were a trend way before the Scary Movie series made  them popular.  Anyway, sometime ago I was sent word that one of my favorite distribution companies, Wild Eye, was releasing the horror comedy Raiders of the Lost Shark which was written by Brett Kelly who directed My Fair Zombie and Spyfall.  I was really interested in this one.  I had to know if it was parody of Jaws or Raiders of the Lost Ark.  I reached out to Wild Eye and they were kind enough to hook me up with a review copy.  Thanks guys.

     The film begins with two security guards who disregard their job of watching over a lake when two women come over looking for a little action.  They decide to go for a dip in the lake and something under the water snags them up.  Soon, their supervisors arrive and enter the lake only to suffer the same fate.  This prompts an investigation and it is soon discovered that a scientific research team had accidentally opened an underwater cavern that was home to a lost shark.  They visit a college professor who was the sole survivor of a shark attack and ask her to go to the abandoned lake to combat the evil shark where they discover the real reason behind the shark's killing spree.
     Parodies should always be taken with a grain of salt and if you know exactly what you are getting into then you can at least have a few good laughs.  Student Bodies, Evil Head, The XXXorcist.  All these films know that they are parodies and refuse to take themselves too seriously.  Raiders of the Lost Shark is another parody that does not take itself too seriously but failed to actually deliver on the laughs that one would expect from a parody.  The acting in this one varies from cast member to cast member.  Most of the cast falls into mediocrity which is something we see all too often in indie horror.  A lot of the cast members feel like they are just saying their lines with no conviction or heart behind it.  We then get some great performances from Lawrence Evenchick and Scott McClelland.  The two give us some goofy and campy characters that really stick out and made the scenes they were in fun.  They are the few light-hearted characters in the film which added some much needed humor to some dry scenes.  The story for this one is a mash-up parody of Jaws and remake of Piranha.  The film is able to successfully parody the boat captain from Jaws while poorly imitating several Jaws-like kill scenes.  The story, however, uses portions from Alexander Aja's remake of Piranha where they mistakenly open up a underwater cavern unleashing the beasts.  These two combine well as a parody but the film is able to deliver on the entertainment and the laughs.  The characters are very flat and really hard to follow.  Finally, the film has several on screen kills but they are very campy and disappointing.  The kills are too fast the view and all feature the shark jumping through air followed by the victim and shark both disappearing within seconds.  The kills feature very little practical effects and horrible CGI.  The shark is atrocious and the only way it would ever work is if it was in a comedy.  Sadly, a horror comedy still warrants decent CGI.  Overall, Raiders of the Lost Shark is not a spoof I can recommend.  I love campy, cheesy horror flicks but they have to be able to make me laugh while telling a story.  Sadly, this film can not.