It opens with some guys riding dirt bikes on the sand.
Now when riding dirt bikes one thing you’re not worried about is a shark attack.
But if they had read the title on the DVD case, they’d know better. Jimmy Green
(Corin Nemec) is a slightly shady guy with a plan to get the town back in
shape. He wants to start a celebration, which he calls The Sandman Festival, to
draw people to the town to help its economy. His father is the mayor, so he’s
able to put his idea into motion. Meanwhile Sheriff John (Eric Scott Woods) and
his deputy Brenda (Vanessa Evigan), who is also his sister, are investigating
the deaths of the dirt biker riders. They decide to call in Dr. Powers, a shark
expert. Instead, they get his daughter, Sandy Powers (Brooke Hogan), who
apparently is also a shark expert. These things run in the family. Oddly, in 2-Headed Shark Attack, Brooke’s
character also inherited her father’s knowledge and expertise, that time in
welding. Go figure.
This movie lifts a lot of stuff from Jaws. There is a guy with a dorsal fin hat chasing a girl around on
the beach, like the young prankster from Jaws.
The sheriff then closes the beach, and when the merchants get angry, the
mayor says it will be for “twenty-for
hours only,” which is also in Jaws.
And then we get Angus, a weird old fisherman who says he can catch the shark,
but demands more money than what is being offered. In Jaws, Quint demands ten thousand dollars, and that’s probably what
leads Angus to choose his amount, which is also ten thousand dollars. “For that, I’ll bring you the head,” he
says. Sound familiar?
The sand shark eats a cable on the beach, which causes a
power outage in town. Sneaky fish. But what’s good about this movie is that
halfway through, the sand shark is killed. So the festival can go ahead as
planned. But again, if they looked at the DVD case, they might notice that the
title is Sand Sharks, not Sand Shark. Sandy Powers reminds the
sheriff that this shark was a baby so the mother is likely out there looking
for her child (because sharks are such good parents). And hey, are we getting a
bit into Jaws: The Revenge territory
here now?
Not many people show up for the festival, but Jimmy talks
it up to the crowd anyway, saying it’s the best beach party ever. The few dozen
people there react like he’s telling them the truth. And the camera man helps Jimmy
by providing lots of close-ups to make it seem like more people are there. But
we do see Jimmy’s human side when he tells Amanda off. Amanda’s death scene is
great, by the way. And even better is Jimmy’s reaction, jumping from the sand
onto the little step of his trailer.
There is also a seriously excellent moment when two men on
the beach shout out in horror and fear, and the rest of the crowd hears it and
shouts out in response, but in joy. I love that this film makes fun of stupid
crowd mentality, those idiots who shout because others are shouting. The
festival goers are all morons anyway, for when the sharks begin attacking, they
run around in circles on the beach, rather than making a straight line out of
there. And it turns out it’s not just the sand shark’s mother that shows up,
but its whole family – siblings, aunts, cousins, perhaps even some neighbors.
This movie is actually a lot better than most of these
shark movies. For one thing, it has a good sense of humor, at one point even
mentioning Roger Corman and Dinoshark.
“Who?”
Sheriff John asks. “Obviously you’re not
a B movie fan,” Sandy Powers says. “Nope,”
he agrees. Another thing is that the actors actually seem invested in their
parts. Corin Nemec’s performance, for example, is good, as is Vanessa Evigan’s.
And for CG, the sharks, for the most part, don’t look all that bad.
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