Encyclopedia Sharksploitanica by Susan Snyder (Book Review)

Encyclopedia Sharksploitanica is the book I didn’t know I needed but I’m damn glad I have. It’s a wildly entertaining, gut-bustingly funny book filled to the brim with an infectious affection for these gory, silly and often downright inspired movie

ENCYCLOPEDIA SHARKSPLOITANICA BY SUSAN SNYDER
​(BOOK REVIEW by richard martin) 

The latest release from indie horror publisher Madness Heart Press is a book after my own heart. Author, marine biologist and self-professed shark fanatic Susan Snyder, creator of the Sharksploitation Sunday blog, has collected 85 of her tongue-in-cheek film reviews, all focused on cinema’s most prolific and unjustly maligned genre (the sharksploitation movie) and collected them all here in one indispensable reference guide.

Every horror movie fan and their dog must have watched ‘Jaws’ a half dozen times or more by now. Its spot in movie history is assured and, cultural impact aside, it also stands up over 45 years on as a near perfect movie and one that has spawned imitators in their hundreds. Snyder’s focus with Encyclopedia Sharksploitanica is shining a light on the less well-known of these cinematic copycats.

You may have watched ‘Jaws’ but how about ‘Santa Jaws’?

‘Roboshark’?

‘Sharks of the Corn’?

No? You don’t know what you’ve been missing! Not to worry though; Susan Snyder is here to help.

Existing fans of Snyder’s blog have plenty of reason to pick this up, as the book boasts some exclusive content, fantastic illustrations and a handful of illuminating interviews with sharksploitation creators from both behind and in front of the camera. The reviews are the real treat though. None outstay their welcome, clocking in at a couple of pages each. The author’s love of the genre shines through in all of them and they all come with an extra big dose of humour and self-deprecation that make this collection charming, funny and a whole lot of fun to read.

The amount of absolutely useless knowledge I obtained from this book is truly incredible. Did you know that Mila Kunis made her film debut in the 1995 remake of Joe Dante’s Piranha? I sure didn’t. I didn’t even know that film existed! You can’t tell, but there was a 90-minute gap between me writing this paragraph and the next one while I went and watched it (spoiler – it was very good). That is what Encyclopedia Sharksploitanica does to you.

I think it is only fair to warn potential readers to set aside some serious reading time for this book, because simply reading it isn’t enough. I must have put this book down two dozen times (at least) in order to watch the trailer for ‘Shark Encounters of the Third Kind’ or ‘Sharktopus vs Whalewolf’ or any number of frankly incredible sounding movies I’ve never heard of before. I have ended up with a daunting list of weird and wonderful films to track down, on top of reading a thoroughly enjoyable book. Talk about value for money!
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After reading Encyclopedia Sharksploitanica it is almost inevitable that you will end up watching some shark movies. It is unavoidable. My advice; just give in and go with it. I certainly did. I could have gone with a triple bill of ‘Jaws’, ‘Deep Blue Sea’ and ‘The Shallows’ and satisfied my cravings with the best the sub-genre has to offer, but I ask you, where’s the fun? Where’s the adventure? Instead, I picked five movies from Susan’s veritable buffet of aquatic terrors and settled in for a movie marathon of shark hauntings, ill-fated prison breaks and a lot of pissed off sharks. Let’s do this!

Shark Week (2012)
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Eight years after ‘Saw’ and its forty-seven sequels, Asylum did it better, and with 100% more sharks!

Seriously, this film is basically ‘Saw’ at sea. The plot, for what it’s worth, features a rich madman and his island that is teeming with sharks. Feeling wronged by a group of seven people for reasons that are both gradually revealed and largely irrelevant he has them kidnapped and brought to his lair where he has arranged an elaborate series of traps that the group must navigate to survive. Each day brings a new trap that features a new breed of shark.

I loved the concept of this one and it plays things relatively straight. Granted, the acting is generally not the best and the shark special effects are pretty atrocious, even for an almost decade old TV movie, but if nothing else, it’s a ton of fun and wildly unpredictable

To be honest, the movie is worth a watch for Patrick Bergin alone. The man is *literally* clutching pearls throughout the whole film. Every line he delivers is dripping with malice and his ‘crazy eyes’ acting method is something to behold. Given the choice between being in the room with him or one of his sharks, I’d take my chances with the shark any day.

Joking aside, I did genuinely enjoy Shark Week. It’s a great idea with and some inventive traps and beautiful locales. The characters are broad enough to be distinguishable from one another and, for a company who’ve made a name for themselves with rip-off mockbusters, it’s nice to see something bordering on originality from Asylum.
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This is a solid three “exploding sharks” out of five for me.
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Shark Lake (2015)
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Dolph Lundgren has an honest to god fist fight with a shark in this movie, which bumped it straight to the top of my ‘to watch list’. The poster gave me cause for concern however, given its brooding, overly serious vibe. Would I be in for an epic 80s style throwdown, or a tedious melodrama masquerading as a shark movie? Let’s find out!

Rocky’s greatest nemesis plays an illegal exotic species dealer fresh out of prison whose former employer pressures him into completing the job he went to jail for; delivering a female bull shark. Dolph left the bull shark in a local lake before getting locked up and the shark now has a couple of kids who are feasting on the hapless locals.

OK, so Shark Lake is more ‘Jaws’ than ‘Sharknado’. It plays out like a family drama that happens to have a pretty impressive body count. The thriller stuff is broad but relatively engaging. The sharks look awful but are wisely kept off-screen for the most part. There are some genuinely neat scenes though and as long as you don’t go in expecting big action and sharks aplenty, it’s a better movie than it has any right to be.

Regardless of any minor quibbles I may have had with ‘Shark Lake’, at the end of the day, Dolph Lundgren has a punch-up with a shark, so I can’t, in all good conscience, give this one any less than the full five “ill-advised skinny dippers” out of five.
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Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus (2009)
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Confession time. This was not my first time watching this movie. I had a particularly memorable double bill of this and the stone-cold classic, ‘Boa vs Python’ in my youth and I look back at both fondly as being hugely entertaining trash.

The plot? A shark and an octopus of the mega-giant variety are unwittingly unfrozen and Debbie Gibson and her superior science skills are the only thing that stand in the way of a total sharktopusapocalypse. That’s about it, it’s best not to overthink these things.

What I love about this movie is how well it strikes the balance between taking this nonsense seriously, and being in on the joke. It plays the people centric plot fairly straight, but dials things to eleven for the titular creatures, who attack fighter jets and eat airliners, not to mention the shark that takes a nice big bite out of the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s a ton of fun and the filmmakers know it.

I can forgive the movie playing fast and loose with the general concept of science (hint – it is not pouring a beaker of coloured liquid into another beaker of different coloured liquid, then looking disappointed, on repeat, for 90 minutes) but I cannot forgive the surprising lack of shark action. I practically cheered when the scientists decide in act three that their beakers aren’t getting them anywhere so the ideal solution is to just let the pair fight it out. Finally!
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Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus is, in its own weird way, hugely influential and its success upon release is a major contributing factor to the post ‘Sharknado’ world we all live in today. For that alone, it is deserving of four ‘LL Cool J’s’ out of five.

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Ghost Shark (2013)
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Never mind whether you thought it was safe to go back into the water, Ghost Shark makes it unsafe to even take a glass of water up with you at bedtime! Anywhere there is water, whether that be your shower, your garden sprinklers or even your toilet, Ghost Shark may be lurking.

When a competitive fisherman kills a shark in retaliation for eating his prize catch, the shark does not go gently into that good night, instead coming back from the dead to haunt the local town and enact its toothsome vengeance. Just staying on dry land is not going to help you this time!

Seriously, this shark is nothing if not inventive when it comes to its kills.

An outdoor swimming pool in one awesome early scene is nothing compared to the insanity that follows. Bathtubs, kitchen sinks, slip n’ slides, even an office water cooler, this is one creative shark. It gets plenty of screen-time and racks up a hell of a body-count, usually in the silliest and most hilarious way possible.
A sub-plot revolving around a local curse and a grieving local lighthouse keeper make attempts to provide some explanation around the whys of Ghost Shark but, frankly, who cares. The shark died and came back as a ghost to eat people. Works for me!

Ghost Shark is a ton of fun. The effects are surprisingly decent and it fully embraces its ridiculousness. A very well earned four ‘ominous shark fins’ out of five.

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Sharkansas Women’s Prison Massacre (2015)
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They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but Sharkansas Women’s Prison Massacre makes a good case for judging a movie by its title.

A small group of female inmates are sent out into the Arkansas swamps for a spot of menial labour. Clad in their prison issue skimpy vests and cut-off jeans, the girls planned escape is soon thwarted when a prehistoric shark is unwittingly set loose by a fracking accident.

Things start off promisingly and, for a shark movie, there are surprisingly few scenes that feel lifted directly from ‘Jaws’. ‘Tremors’ on the other hand, seems to be fair game.

Major bonus point get awarded for the shark design. It seems to be armoured, is covered in spikes, and looks metal as hell. A lack of water doesn’t deter it in the slightest. It swims just as efficiently under the ground as it does in the swamp, giving the producers a good excuse not to spend the budget on actually showing them all that often.

Sadly, points must also be deducted for being surprisingly dull. It never fully embraces the absurdity and while there are few good lines and feisty characters abound, the shark stuff is weirdly uninspired. There are a lot of scenes where the girls get changed, not so many where they get eaten. Make of that what you will.
Theres not much I can say about Sharkansas Women’s Prison Massacre that the title doesn’t. If you think it’s the best film title since ‘Snakes on a Plane’ then you’ll probably dig the film. If you think it all sounds a bit silly then welcome to sharksploitation baby! What did you expect?

A perfectly respectable three ‘bigger boats’ out of five for the ladies of Sharkansas.

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Encyclopedia Sharksploitanica is the book I didn’t know I needed but I’m damn glad I have. It’s a wildly entertaining, gut-bustingly funny book filled to the brim with an infectious affection for these gory, silly and often downright inspired movies. Here’s hoping that as long as Hollywood keep making ‘em, Susan Snyder will keep writing about ‘em.
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A thoroughly well-deserved five ‘Spielbergs’ out of five!

Encyclopedia Sharksploitanica by Susan Snyder  

Five decades ago, Jaws scared the swimsuits off of us and lit the fuse for a beloved little horror movie sub-genre called Sharksploitation. From the blatant rip-offs of the 1970's to the CGI assault of modern movies, shark movies are going strong and still satiating our appetite for toothy carnage.

With her education as a marine biologist and her experience diving with sharks, Susan brings her distinct perspective to 85 of Sharkploitation's most notorious, ridiculous and sometimes pointless contributions to film. Don't let her fool you though. This is really a tongue-in-cheek love letter to shark cinema ... the good, the bad and the "so bad it's good".

In this all-teeth-no-bones collection of reviews, interviews, essays, rants and even some poetry, Susan dissects the genre as a whole and explores everything she loves, and hates, about Sharksploitation movies.

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Richard is an avid reader and fan of all things horror. He supports Indie horror lit via Twitter (@RickReadsHorror) and reviews horror in all its forms for several websites including Horror Oasis and Sci Fi and Scary

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