Ghost Shark

Ghost Shark is a SyFy channel movie, so you know you are in for a cheesy ride. I think it’s a certain type of people who enjoy these kinds of movies and yes, I am one of them. I LOVE this time of year because Discovery channel’s Shark Week and SyFy will always run a ton of cheesy shark movies.

<img src="ghostshark.jpg" alt="Ghost Shark.">

Photo Credit: Active Entertainment

Released: Apr 22, 2013

Runtime: 87 mins

Director: Griff Furst

Writer: Eric Forsberg, Griff Furst, Scott Foy

Actors: Robert Aberdeen, Jayme Bohn, Eliot Brasseaux

PLOT

When two rednecks kill a Great White shark, the spirit of the shark comes back as a ghost and starts terrorizing the nearest town.

MY THOUGHTS

I’ll give credit to Ghost Shark, there are a decent amount of kills. I was able to count 17 kills, where the shark killed all but one, which was Finch’s wife. Finch killed her. Ghost Shark has too much CGI for my taste, but I’m a Practical Effects kind of gal. My two favorite kills are the douche teen on the diving board. He inadvertently dives into the shark's mouth and his head flies off and lands on a champagne bottle. And the mayor’s death. He’s sitting on the toilet and the shark comes up through the toilet. Both are pretty good. I think it’s pretty creative that the ghost shark can appear through any form of water. The mayor’s assistant dies after drinking some water and the shark bursting through him.

The acting is what you would expect from a SyFy style movie: total cheese. Though the two main leads Ava (Mackenzie Rosman) and Blaise (Dave Davis) do a decent job with what they were given. Mackenzie Rosman reminds me a little of Shiri Appleby from Roswell. The best though is Richard Moll as Finch, a lighthouse keeper with a guilty conscience.

We start Ghost Shark on a boat in the middle of the night. A father and daughter fishing team (also rednecks) are trying to catch a huge fish for a competition. Unfortunately their huge catch is half eaten by a Great White shark. This pisses them off and they end up seriously injuring the shark and the shark swims off into a nearby cave. The next thing they know the ghost of the shark is back, killing the two and the captain of the boat.

The next day a group of teens head to the beach to hang out and have some fun. Half of the group is in the water, having fun and the other three are on the beach. The sisters on the beach see a ship just listless in the water. They realize it’s their dad's boat and swim to it to see if their dad is there.

One of the women in the water is hit by the ghost shark. She heads over to the friends with the wave runner and throws the guy off, and starts heading for the beach. The two other guys in the water realize there’s a shark and also head for the beach. The girl almost makes it to the beach when the shark comes out of the water, cutting her in half. Meanwhile, the sisters notice nobody is on the boat, and the only clue is a lot of blood and a camera. 

Per usual, the cops and the mayor don’t believe any of them about the ghost shark and send everyone home. The mayor’s son is having a pool party so he and one of their friends leave. Blaise stays with Ava and her sister Cicely until they tell him to go on to the party.

At the party of course the shark shows up and kills one kid jumping off the diving board and one of their friends Mick dies as well. Blaise heads back to the girls house after being tossed into the pool.

The next morning the shark makes several appearances, killing a plumber, a kid on a slip n slide, and a bikini girl washing cars. The mayor, more worried about his re-election than his constituents, has his assistant make an announcement. 

Ava, Blaise, and Cam (the mayor’s son) are starting to figure out what’s going on. They go to the local museum where the director explains the history of the town and the cave. How the town had “disappeared”. Stupid Cam waits outside to have a cigarette, then throws his lit cigarette in the trash, causing a fire. Now the sprinklers go off, causing a ton of water to come into the museum. The ghost shark shows up and kills the director and Cam.

After saving Cicely from the shark attack in the bathtub, all three go and see Finch, the Lighthouse Keeper. They figure out that if they destroy the cave, the shark will disappear. Unfortunately Finch doesn’t want to destroy the cave because he feels like his dead wife's spirit is still in the cave. He accidentally killed her in the cave and he doesn’t want to lose her again.

Finch eventually realizes that they must destroy the cave but he ends up getting killed when it starts raining while they try to blow up the cave. Ava, ends up risking her life to light the fuse in the cave, sets off the dynamite, destroying the cave and the Ghost Shark disappears.

Overall, Ghost Shark is a cheesy SyFy channel type movie that is kind of fun. If you go into it as just a fun ride, you’ll enjoy it. It’s not Oscar worthy but a decent sharksploitation movie. There is a sequel if you like Ghost Shark.

And now for your Forever Final Girl Exclusive…Did you know?:

  • When the kids find the web page about the lighthouse keeper's wife, there's a brief shot of the computer screen. The news page links to several other topics that sound like Syfy movies: Alligator attacks in Louisiana swamps, Ex-government scientists control weather. There's also a link to "People watching science fiction movie pause screen to read unimportant text".

  • The shark, made by the Shark City Ozark team, is a replica of Bruce, to pay tribute to Jaws.

  • LSU head football coach Les Miles was originally selected to play the mayor, but had to withdraw due to scheduling conflicts. 

  • The film was released one month after Sharknado.

Check out my other reviews here: Forever Final Girl

Let’s get into the rankings:

Kills/Blood/Gore: 3/5

Sex/Nudity: 0/5

Scare factor: 2/5

Enjoyment factor: 5/5

My Rank: 3.3/5

IMDB: 3.3/10

Rotten Tomatoes: critics:  2.9/10  audience:  2/10

Letterboxd: 2/5