If you’re looking for an alternative to sleeping pills, Deep Blood may work quite well.
Shark movies come in many varieties. There are a plethora of over-the-top and ridiculous ones. However, boring movies featuring sharks are almost as rare as truly exciting ones. One such boring shark film is Deep Blood. Directed by the prolific Joe D’Amato, Deep Blood is an Italian sharksploitation film that tries — at least in theory — to do something unusual. By incorporating a Native American legend into the mix, at least some thought was put into the concept. The execution, however, leaves much to be desired. Oh, so much.
The movie begins with four boys on a beach. Cooking hot dogs over a campfire, the boys seem oddly happy when they’re approached by a man who immediately launches into a dialog about evil spirits and oaths and such. Instead of running away, the boys decide to take a blood oath to each other. The man gives them a wooden arrow quiver with ancient engravings on it, which they promptly bury in the sand. Could it be significant later in the film? Hmm.
Flash forward about ten years and the boys are all grown up and reuniting for the summer. Two are returning from college. Another from military school. One I don’t remember. It doesn’t really matter, honestly.
At about the same time, a woman is attacked and killed by a shark. At least I think that’s what was happening. The woman was fine one second and thrashing around in pink water the next. The only clue that something was stalking her are some random POV shots from under her raft. Anyway, her son watches in abject boredom from the beach as his mother flails around in the surf.
Soon, one of the boys is killed by the shark while spearfishing. This time, I’m sure it was a shark attack because we’re treated to stock footage of sharks (never the same one twice) combined with POV footage and a horrible-looking fake dorsal fin slicing through the water. His fishing partner also watches in abject boredom as his friend thrashes around in pink water. Maybe these characters have all seen better shark attacks in other movies? I know I have.
After this attack, several attempts are made to convince the town’s mayor that a shark is prowling the water and needs to be stopped. Some fisherman catch a rather large shark and the mayor declares it was the shark responsible for the attacks. Stop me if this sounds familiar. Of course, it’s not the right shark and only the boys — who remember their Native American oath of the buried treasure — can stop the real killer shark.
While it might sound like I’ve spoiled the entire movie, I haven’t mentioned the absurd amount of extraneous and poorly written dialogue. The cast members — most of whom had never acted before and haven’t since — aren’t given much to work with here. The “climactic” sequence drags on for almost 13 minutes and never builds a modicum of suspense. Granted, it’s terribly difficult to make a shark attacks seem believable — much less scary — when each one consists of stock footage clumsily spliced into film of actors splashing around in pink water. Deep Blood gets no assistance from its musical score either, which consists of bland synthesizer stabs that do nothing to heighten the tension. So imagine how exciting the film becomes when people are simply standing around talking. Unfortunately, there’s much more talking than shark stuff.
If you’re looking for a satisfying shark movie, Deep Blood is not it. If you’re looking for an alternative to sleeping pills, Deep Blood may work quite well.
1.0 out of 5.0 stars
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