Cruel Jaws

Director - Bruno Mattei (The Other Hell, Rats: Night of Terror)

Starring - David Luther (Only the Strong), George Barnes Jr. (Detective Extralarge, South Beach), and Scott Silveria 

Release Date - 1995

Genre - Horror

Tagline - "Just when you thought it was safe to go into the sea again"

Format - Bluray (Personal Collection)

Rating (out of 5):

     Late last year Severin Films released several movies that caught my attention.  I like Severin for the most part but there has been a few of their films that I just didn't care for.  One of those releases last year that really caught my eye was their blu release of the 1995 sharksploitation film Cruel Jaws which some of you may know as Jaws 5.  I had never seen this one before but it looked a lot of fun.  I eventually snagged a copy but wasn't able to watch it right away.  After spinning a few Arrow Video releases I decided to have a Severin sharksploitation double feature with Cruel Jaws up first.

     The film follows the beach community in Florida who is terrorized by a giant shark.  The greedy mayor refuses to close the beaches but when the shark get it's taste of human flesh it goes on a feeding frenzy forcing the authorities to spring into action to kill it before it can kill again.

     I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a big fan of shark flicks.  They tend to be boring and the lingering thought of "stay out of the water and nothing will happen" sticks with me the entire time.  Sharks are only menacing if you are in the water so if you stick to land then you just took away all the horror and fear.  However, that wouldn't make for a good movie so we have various reasons the people venture out into the sea.  I was hoping Cruel Jaws would have that Italian sleaze that Mattei was known for but it didn't.  In fact, the film fell short in a lot of ways.  The acting in this one was far from perfect but it was funny in a lot of ways.  The characters are pretty generic and a lot of the performances we get are fairly flat resulting in a lot of unforgettable scenes.  The humor is unintentional but it's funny regardless.  The cast overreacts at times making for an awkward but hysterical scene.  The story for this one is just like every other shark movie since Jaws.  A giant shark terrorizes a coastal community that is based on tourism so they have to kill the shark forcing several teams to go into the water never to return.  What makes this movie miss is how it can't even deliver original footage.  It takes scenes from previously shot movies and integrates them into the film.  You get an unoriginal film that's not finished.  Finally, you can only do so much with a shark feature.  We get some make-up effects and blood, along with stock footage of sharks but that's about the extent of it.  Don't expect a bloodbath because you will be very disappointed.  Overall, Cruel Jaws was a mess of a film that I just couldn't get into.  The blu does look great but the movie itself is a tough one to finish.  Skip it.