The Last Shark

The Last Shark

Genre: Horror, Natural Horror, Giant Monster

Original title: L' ultimo squalo

AKA: Great White / The Last Jaws

Director: Enzo G. Castellari

Year: 1982

An enormous and angry 35 foot Great White Shark takes revenge on humans when they build a beach just for swimmers by a coastal town.

Of all the films the Italian's decided to rip-off, The Last Shark is probably the most notorious case. Shortly before the film's release, Universal Pictures filed suit against the producers, claiming the film was too similar to Jaws, and the Australian distributors, for breach of copyright regarding Peter Benchley's book "Jaws". Universal won an injunction, and the film was pulled from theaters. 

The film would eventually be released on VHS world-wide with various titles that would confuse people into believing that the picture was actually a Jaws sequel. Because of this, over the years people not accustomed to Italian films of this era have regarded it as one of the worst films ever made. This is unfair. Whilst The Last Shark is nothing special, it is for the most part a competent film. The practical effects of the shark are surprisingly decent & very rarely look less than serviceable. The surprising downfall is the dull characters that just act as a support for the shark. Director Enzo G. Castellari who tends to always have fun characters in his movies (surprisingly) fails to deliver this time round with a cast of completely unmemorable characters. 

The Natural-Horror/creature-feature genre is one which when done right can be highly enjoyable. The monster part was handled pretty well, unfortunately the lack of decent characters really drags the film down a good few notches. That said, there is still fun to be had with The Last Shark & as far these type of films go its far from being a disaster. It's certainly better than some of the official Jaws sequels that were churned out in the 80s.

Rating: ★★½

As you can see, it's nothing like jaws!