The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Lining up the gooey The Beast In Me to watch on Netflix,I started looking for a second Creature Feature to see. Going to my local CEX,I found what looked like a short a sweet shark tail,which led to me dipping my feet into the swamp. The plot:After an attempted robbery of a tankard goes wrong,the contents spill out into swamp water. Spilling out near the alligators of the swamp,the contents turns out to be a shark,who kills all the alligators. Seeing people turn up half eaten, Gator Shack restaurant owner Rachel Broussard gathers her family and friends to sail out and find the alligators. Nearing the major alligator swamp, (who all have tracking devices put inside them) Broussard is horrified to find no sign of the alligators,and all their tracking devices hoovering alone in the water.View on the film:Swimming in a SyFy channel movie swamp,director Griff Furst & cinematographer Lorenzo Senatore do well to give the Creature Feature terror scenes a real crunch, with the practical effects and gallons of blood bringing out an over the top atmosphere that makes up for the iffy CGI moments. Always keeping the shark near the pesky humans,the screenplay by Jennifer Iwen/Eric Miller and Charles Bolon offers up a deep-fried plate of Southern terror,oiled up by charming thumb- sketches drawn of all the people in the town,who become drawn to finding out what is in the swamp. Setting her sights on the beast with a harpoon gun, Kristy Swanson covers the flick in dollops of thigh-tapping Southern sass as the tough fighting Broussard,who wants to return the swamp to a shark-free zone.

A corrupt Louisiana sheriff named "Sheriff Watson" (Robert Davi) is buying rare and exotic animals and reselling them for a profit. In one particular purchase, a strange but exceedingly deadly type of shark is brought to him but manages to escape into the bayou. Not far from there is a family-owned restaurant called "the Gator Shed" which is run by "Rachael Bouchard" (Kristy Swanson) with the help of her brother "Jason Bouchard" (Jeff Chase) and younger sister "Krystal Bouchard" (Sophie Sinise). Naturally, since the shark needs to feed, and an annual celebration nearby called the "Gator Fest" just happens to have plenty of people frolicking in the water, things begin to get rather dicey for all concerned rather quickly. So much for the plot which is, of course, very similar to "Jaws" and several of its sequels and clones. Nothing really new. Along with that the acting wasn't that good, some of the scenarios bordered on the ridiculous and the special effects left much to be desired. On the other hand, this film had some decent suspense and a few attractive young ladies (like the aforementioned Kristy Swanson and Sophie Sinise) to keep things interesting. Even so, the good points simply weren't sufficient to overcome the flaws mentioned earlier and as a result it's difficult to rate this film higher than I have. Slightly below average.

Picked this, and MONSTERWOLF, up for £3 each in Tesco- and watched SWAMP SHARK tonight expecting something awful. Surprise! It's actually aces. I admit, I was attracted mainly by the magnificent creature on the box art; which looks exactly like my shark-obsessed six year old had won a competition to draw the scariest shark he could imagine, and then have it made into a film. It looks like nothing on Earth- and predictably the movie itself never reveals it in the same type of glory. Ordinarily, this would annoy me, but the sense of fun the film radiates more than makes up for this disappointment.The characters are engaging, the cast seem to be having a great time with some good material, and even when the titular beastie isn't around the movie continues to be interesting and enjoyable, buoyed by the script, performances and direction. Yes, the cgi is less-than-stellar- of course it is, but it really doesn't matter one jot. And the fact that they use some good old fashioned rubber sharkery at times just increases the fun.One or two gory bits, but nothing that's going to offend the younger members of the family unless they're particularly squeamish, no nudity and no swearing means it's a pretty good bet as an entry level horror film for parents like me, keen to hook their offspring on the genre.Yes, not all of it ties together, and one specific thread (the younger sister and her nerdy chef admirer) is left unresolved, but the sheer shock of picking up a three quid movie that gave so much back completely negates any misgivings I may have had over this.Oh, and the Cajun soundtrack is brilliant. I want the album now (or at least its inspired me to go buy some of the type of music featured) and the DVD menu screen is not only a visual delight (the cover-creature in full-body magnificence) but the looping music track is great too!

I Keep going back for more! Maybe it's a last ditch attempt to recapture the awe i had watching the monster movies i saw as a kid,or maybe it's some kind of damage to the cerebrum due to an early fall, i don't know. I do know that every time one of these Killer Shark / Mutant Bee / Giant whatever movies rears it's ugly CGI infested head on the syfy channel i usually find myself parked in front of the t.v - alone! My wife gave up watching these things with me a long time ago, but my tolerance for them is pretty solid and my plight goes on. Anyway, after sitting through the truly atrocious 'Sharktopus' the night before i surprised even myself by giving Swamp Shark the time of day. I was quite surprised, not too bad, not great by a long shot but not too bad all the same. One of the main winning points of this movie is the toning down of the CGI, most of it is bad in this kind of movie and the films suffer because of it. Although Swamp Shark has it's moments of nasty cheap looking CGI it's not overrun with it.In some attacks the CGI is actually replaced with a good old fashioned rubber shark head,which once may have been scoffed at but now is nice to see. A lot of the sharks screen time is under murky water masking the computer effects,it's only when it leaves the water that the problems start. The Other winning point is the characters are tolerable,quite likable even. Everyone slots into their modern b-movie place nicely, the sister's and ex NFL pro hulk of a brother struggling with their inherited family restaurant/Gator park business - The Ass of a boyfriend who you look forward to getting munched - The Nasty corrupt sheriff who doesn't want to know because he's responsible for the whole mess in the first place - The Undercover agent - They all chip in to keep the film ticking along when the title character is not around causing mayhem. Overall the film keeps it's sense of fun, not taking itself too seriously without trying to parody itself as the afore mentioned 'Shartopus' tried and failed to do. Many will hate this movie and it's probably destined to the usual low score that syfy channel movies get on here(most deserved)but i for one found myself enjoying it. It flows, it's fun and it takes the shark attack movie on vacation to new surroundings. Or maybe Sharktopus is more your cup of chum.