Sharktopus (2010)

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Posted By: brian@brianschell.com July 15, 2024

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

You have to just let yourself go and think of this one as silly entertainment to enjoy it. When just a shark isn’t scary enough, add some tentacles, and you’ve got another level. This is well made for what it is, with some low-level CGI, and we thought it was a pretty fun watch.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on a bright, sunny day at Santa Monica Beach as the credits roll. One girl goes for a swim as her friend remains behind to play on her phone. Soon, a shark fin appears and chases Bree. Just as it’s about to bite her, giant tentacles reach up and kill the shark. The creature looks like half a shark, but it has tentacles too, and has some kind of electronic control device on it.

We cut to a control room where Nathan Sands shows Commander Cox footage of the whole incident. Nathan’s daughter, Nicole, explains that S-11 is completely under their control, a new weapon for the US Navy. They recall the S-11, but it’s on an intercept course for another vessel. The Commander wants the S-11 to pursue the little motorboat as a test. The speedboat does something unexpected, and it knocks the control collar off of the S-11. The “Sharktopus” stops responding and is now uncontrollable. This could be… bad.

The Sharktopus is heading to Mexico, so they track it to Puerto Vallarta; Nathan and Nicole go as well. Santos recommends that they call in Andy Flynn to help, a guy who Nathan fired for being too greedy.

Nathan tells Andy that he needs S-11 captured, not killed. Stacy, an investigative reporter, tracks down Pez about a photo he took of the Sharktopus. Meanwhile, a couple goes bungee jumping over the ocean; it’s like dangling bait over the aquarium as the Sharktopus leaps up and grabs the girl (played by Roger Corman’s daughter, Mary).

A pirate radio station reports that the Sharktopus is in the area. He suggests that someone is filming a low budget horror movie. Pez takes Stacy to where he saw the creature and they soon see it again. The creature attacks a bunch of people on the beach and causes a stampede. Stacy reports this on the news, so now everyone knows about it. Pez thinks he can track the creature from the previous movements.

Andy confronts Nicole about what she’s hiding. Sharks aren’t serial killers; could they have genetically modified the creature to make it more vicious?  We cut to Nathan and Commander Cox talking about just that.

Andy and his men dive where they think the creature is, and it fights back, eating everyone but him. Andy gets a big gash on his leg, but Santos patches him up. Nathan tells Nicole that he enhanced its aggressiveness to make it a killer for the military.

Andy and Nicole run into Pez and Stacy’s boat. Pez is eaten by the shark before Andy shoots at it, running it off. Sharktopus then attacks Bob and Ed, a couple of jet skiers, before heading for another beach.

Stacy figures out that Blue Water is behind the creature, a shady genetic engineering firm with government contracts. The creature then eats the pirate radio guy even as he makes fun of it on the radio.

After a few more random attacks, Commander Cox wants to bring in a team to kill the Sharktopus, but Nathan wants it captured alive. The creature then attacks the main resort in Puerto Vallarta, and that’s crazy. Andy shoots at it, but it appears to be bulletproof.

Nathan shows his true colors as he confronts Andy, but Nicole takes Andy’s side. Suddenly, the Sharktopus attacks all of them, and Nathan’s goons are all killed. When it grabs Nicole, Nathan jumps in, and it kills him instead.

The Sharktopus arrives at another resort and starts eating people and jumping for people riding on the zip lines. Nicole tells Andy that the creature’s “kill switch” might still be working, but they have to get close to it. Meanwhile, Stacy and her cameraman meet an unfortunate end.

Andy tranquilizes the monster and keeps it busy as Nicole tries to hack the kill switch on her computer. It’s all very tense until she guesses the password, and the shark’s brain explodes.

We’re not going to see the Sharktopus again!

Commentary

OMG. The dialog from most of the characters is just awful. It’s all bright and pretty and looks really good– until someone opens their mouth to speak.

The CGI is really dated, if it ever looked good in the first place. Seeing the shark crawling around on the beach with tentacles is just– special. There are lots of shirtless guys and girls in tight bikinis and even a funny cameo by Roger Corman himself.

Still, this was intended to be cheap and cheesy, and they aren’t trying to win any awards here. It’s well filmed and the non-CGI bits all look good. The concept itself is what saves the film; what could be scarier than a shark with giant tentacles? Keep in mind that, as bad as it was, it still managed to spawn two sequels. If you just leave your brain at the door and go along with it, it’s just silly fun.