Considered one of the worst films ever made, Jaws: The Revenge is a ridiculous triumph in B Movie film making that is both a completely preposterous entry in a legendary franchise and a "so bad it's good" supernatural man vs. nature horror film that was sadly labelled as part of said franchise rather than simply being a one-off killer shark ordeal. Featuring a nuanced central performance, a ludicrous storyline, and laughable special effects, this is one of the unsung heroes of cult cinema.
A
police officer is killed off the coast of a small New England town by a flesh-eating
shark. His mother, Ellen, believes that the shark is the embodiment of a curse
that has plagued her family for decades, which began when her husband
personally killed a great white shark that was terrorizing the same town years
prior. She flees to the Bahamas to warn her other son who is a marine
biologist. The shark pursues, forcing Ellen to confront her fears and face the
beast one on one.
Lorraine Gary delivers a grounded emotional turn as Ellen. Taking a page out of the James Cameron playbook, Ellen is deeply haunted by the monsters of her past, but always summons the appropriate amount of badass when required. While she begins as reckless and scared, her instant transformation into fearless shark killer is a paint by numbers affair that Gary has little time to explore, which only serves to increase the insane ambiance. She's supported by Mario Van Peeples, Lance Guest, and the great Michael Caine, who delivers a fun turn as a Caribbean pilot who captures Ellen's heart. One of the few things that this film does well is portray a relationship between two older characters as if they were in the throes of puberty. Very rarely does a horror film bother with courtship and even rarer is its focus on a more mature couple.
Michael
de Guzman's script is a beautiful train wreck. The shark in this film has a
psychic connection to Ellen that comes alive anytime she touches the water. The
creature's mythical qualities, such as roaring underwater and swimming over a
thousand miles in a few days enhances the late-night double feature mystique, a
sad reminder that this was a film that could have been so much more had it been
handled differently. The fact that the shark is almost demonic hearkens back to
Peter Benchley's novel upon which the original film was based. Despite the
awful presentation, this film handles the original concept of man versus an
avatar of nature's revenge more faithfully than any of the films that preceded
it. The initial kill sequence is the fabric of nightmares, setting a tone that
is unfortunately not maintained, but underneath the corny veneer is a psychic
horror story with so much promise that the idea of what could have been ends up
being more important than what it is.
John McPherson's cinematography is reliable and rich, capturing the ardor of the Bahamas and the perils of the depths with remarkably natural detail. Henry Millar's special effects are the weak sister, with this incarnation of the toothed terror presented as a throwback to 50's matinee creature features, which climaxes in the film's showcase: a barely stressful chase scene. The gigantic shark somehow manages to navigate the maze-like interior of a sunken ship while chasing Ellen's son, and yet that's not the most outlandish thing that occurs within the film.
Michael
Small's score combines with John Stacy's sound editing to savage John
Williams's iconic theme with a chime effect that hearkens the monster's
approach. The sound editing during the underwater sequences (despite the roar)
is decent, delivering solid tension that deflates whenever the shark is
revealed. Ultimately, the concept of generational obsession and nature's
dominance over mankind are intriguing ideas that were forsaken for a synthetic
shark and the yield is an interesting, but laughable experiment.
Available
now for digital, Jaws: The Revenge is unadulterated trash cinema at its
finest. Michael Caine missed accepting an Oscar to complete his work, while the
film garnered several Razzie nominations, with Millar's effects winning the
Golden Raspberry. The film has two different endings, the second of which is so
illogically conceived that it serves as the perfect capstone on an opera of
absurdity. The summation of this film's barely adequate parts is a fun and
forgettable experience that demands MST3K treatment. If you're looking for the
ultimate experience in bad film euphoria, look no further.
--Kyle
Jonathan