Director – Mark Polonia, Screenplay – Bando Glutz, Producer – Rob Hauschild, Photography – Paul Alan Steele, Special Effects – Brett Piper & Anthony Polonia. Production Company – Polonia Bros. Entertainment.
Titus Himmelberger (Neil Braddock), Natalie Himmelberger (Persephone Fleur), Ken Van Sant (Felix Gaurisco), Samantha Coolidge (Meagan), Ryan Dalton (Fuente), Mark Polonia (The Doctor), Noyes J. Lawton (Fuente’s Goon)
A scientist has been developing a new form of cocaine that is derived from sharks for the drug dealer Felix Garusico. A side effect of this has been the creation of a series of bizarre shark hybrids. As the drug dealers break into his laboratory, one of these creatures, a giant human-crab-shark hybrid, escapes into the waters. At the same time, undercover detective Neil Braddock is assigned to infiltrate Garusico’s organisation. Garusico pushes Neil together with mystery woman Persephone who suggests that they try some of the new HTTF drug that gives the user the experience of being an attacking shark.
Born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, twin brothers Mark and John Polonia gained recognition for their ultra-low-budget films, beginning in the 1980s. John passed away from an aneurism in 2008 but Mark has continued on his own putting out a substantial body of genre works with some sixty films to his name at current count. (A full list of the Polonia films is at the bottom of the page).
The release of the mainstream Cocaine Bear (2023) seemed to have become a source of inspiration for filmmakers. Indeed, the entire concept of the Cocaine Bear almost seems a B movie that has strayed beyond its natural territory. Two months after the release of Cocaine Bear, Mark Polonia appeared with Cocaine Shark here, while Dustin Ferguson, another director who operates at the bottom of the barrel, made Cocaine Cougar (2023) and The Asylum produced Methgator (2023). Mark Polonia also has Cocaine Werewolf (2024) waiting in the wings.
Killer shark films have been with us since Jaws (1975), which led to a series of sequels and imitators. By the late 2010s with efforts like Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus (2009) and in particular the bad movie hit of The Asylum’s Sharknado (2013), the shark movie became the Gonzo Killer Shark Film where each successive low-budget entry seemed to be in a competition to come up with a more ridiculous title. (See Killer Shark Movies for a more detailed listing). Within the Gonzo Shark Film genre, Mark Polonia has also made Sharkenstein (2016), Land Shark (2017), Shark Encounters of the Third Kind (2020), Noah’s Shark (2021), Virus Shark (2021), Doll Shark (2022) and Sharkula (2022).
That said, Cocaine Shark is a killer shark film in name only. The actual monster looks nothing like a shark and is said to be a genetically engineered combination crab, human and shark – in actuality, it looks like a giant squid-crab. There is an awkward attempt to justify the title in saying that it was created by a scientist (played by Polonia himself) while developing experimental strains of cocaine.
This is tied to an A-plot with Titus Himmelberger as an undercover detective investigating drug dealer Ken Van Sant’s organisation and becoming involved with a girl (played by Titus’s wife Natalie) after Van Sant pushes them together. The Himmelbergers take a drug that makes them think they are attacking sharks. For reasons not entirely clear, Natalie persuades Titus that he has to go out on the lake on a speedboat, which is then hijacked by two thugs carrying a suitcase of drugs. They are attacked by the hybrid shark and end up on an island in the lake where Van Sant’s drug kingpin is also lurking. Trying to follow the plot and why things are happening are not unakin to having inhaled a whole suitcase of experimental cocaine and leaves you with a major headache. It is often a series of scenes that feel only tangentially connected to one another.
As always with Polonia films, the effects are bottom of the barrel with a ridiculous looking papier-mache shark person wandering around attacking people and the even more ludicrous opticals of the hybrid cocaine shark creature swimming about and attacking. There are even a variety of scenes that appear shot without continuity where Titus Himmelberger appears with and without a beard.
The Polonia Brothers films are Hallucinations (1986), the Polonia Brothers, who were then only eighteen years old, went on to make a series of horror films that became legendary for their cheapness. Over the next two decades, the two put out the likes of Splatter Farm (1987), Hellspawn (1993), Saurians (1994), How to Slay a Vampire (1995), Feeders (1996), Night Crawlers (1996), Bad Magic (1998), Terror House (1998), Feeders 2: Slay Bells (1998), Blood Red Planet (2000), The House That Screamed (2000), Hellgate: The House That Screamed 2 (2001), Dweller (2002), Gorilla Warfare: Battle for the Apes (2002), Night Thirst (2002), Holla If I Kill You (2003), Among Us (2004), Dinosaur Chronicles (2004), Peter Rottentail (2004), Preyalien: Alien Predators (2004), Black Mass (2005), Razorteeth (2005), Splatter Beach (2007), Wildcat (2007), Forest Primeval (2008) and Monster Movie (2008). John died of a heart aneurism in 2008. Since then, Mark Polonia has continued on as a solo director, making the likes of HalloweeNight (2009), E.V.E. of Destruction (2011), Empire of the Apes (2013), Camp Blood First Slaughter (2014), Amityville Death House (2015), Channel 13 (2015), Death Reel (2015), Jurassic Prey (2015), Bigfoot vs Zombies (2016), Sharkenstein (2016), Amityville Exorcism (2017), It Kills (2017), Land Shark (2017), Revolt of the Empire of the Apes (2017), Alien Surveillance (2018), BattleBots (2018), Frozen Sasquatch (2018), Ghost of Camp Blood (2018), Bride of the Werewolf (2019), Deadly Playthings (2019), Amityville Island (2020), Children of Camp Blood (2020), Return to Splatter Farm (2020), Shark Encounters of the Third Kind (2020), Camp Murder (2021), Dune World (2021), Invasion of the Empire of the Apes (2021), Noah’s Shark (2021), Sister Krampus (2021), Virus Shark (2021), Amityville in Space (2022), Doll Shark (2022), Feeders 3: The Final Meal (2022), House Squatch (2022), Reel Monsters (2022), Sharkula (2022), Saurians (2022), Jurassic Shark 3: Seavenge (2023), Motorboat (2023), R.I.P. Van Winkle Part 2 (2023), R.I.P. Van Winkle Part 3 (2023), Saurians 2 (2023) and Yule Log (2023).
(Winner in this site’s Worst Films of 2023 list).
Trailer here