Director/Story – Brett Kelly, Screenplay – David A. Lloyd, Additional Dialogue – Brett Kelly & Trevor Payer, Producer – Anne-Marie Frigon, Photography – Jeremy Kennedy & Amber Peeters, Music – Christopher Nickel, Visual Effects Supervisor – Dani Rosen, Creature Effects – Ralph Gethings. Production Company – TomCat Films, LLC/Brett Kelly Entertainment.
Cast
Emanuelle Carriere (Jill), Angela Parent (Barb), Christine Emes (Tia), Celine Filion (Kristen), Duncan Milloy (Rich), Phil Dukarsky (Doug), Kyle Martellacci (Mike), Jurgen Vollrather (Dr Lincoln Grant), Sarah Mosher (Tiffany), Kala Gray (Brittany), Kevin Preece (Jerry), Joshua Gilbert Crosby (Jack), Sherry Thurig (Scientist), Jody Haucke (Chairman Cameron), Ian Quick & Darren Stevens (Fishermen)
Plot
Scientist Lincoln Grant accelerates a drilling program he has been working on but this goes too deep and causes an explosion. Meanwhile, Jill and three friends head out across the lake on a boat so that she can conduct an investigation into illegal industrial activities on the island. At the same time, Barb and her henchmen have conducted the theft of a valuable painting and are crossing to the island to a rendezvous with the buyer. However, both boats are sunken after being attacked by a prehistoric megalodon shark that has been unearthed by the drilling and is now in the lake. Stranded on the island, the two parties are forced to cooperate to survive the shark.
Brett Kelly is a Canadian director who has produced a great many low-budget films, many of which are made as copycats of more high-profile titles. These include The Bonesetter (2003), Final Curtain (2005), My Dead Girlfriend (2006), Kingdom of the Vampire (2007), Prey for the Beast (2007), the remake of Attack of the Giant Leeches (2008), Pirates: Quest for Snake Island (2009), Avenging Force: The Scarab (2010), Iron Soldier (2010), Thunderstorm: The Return of Thor (2011), Agent Beetle (2012), My Fair Zombie (2013), Homicycle (2014), Raiders of the Lost Shark (2015), Spyfall (2015), Ghastlies (2016), Countrycide (2017), Konga TNT (2020), Ouija Shark (2020) and Galaxy Warriors (2022).
Jurassic Shark was made just before Sharknado came out and the point where things became totally ridiculous. There were several other films around this time and subsequently based around the idea of the prehistoric megalodon with Shark Hunter (2001), Megalodon (2002), Shark Attack 3: Megalodon (2002), Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus and sequels, Dinoshark (2010), Super Shark (2011), The Meg (2018), Megalodon (2018) and The Black Demon (2023). The distinction Jurassic Shark has it that it was the first of the shark title pun films to be followed by the likes of Kelly’s Raiders of the Lost Shark, Santa Jaws (2018), Noah’s Shark and Shark Side of the Moon, among a good many others.
Emanuelle Carriere pursued by shark
Jurassic Shark is considered a Bad Movie – at one point it was the lowest rated film on the IMDB, although has disappeared off their charts now. I think there are far worse examples in the Gonzo Killer Shark genre – some of the Mark Polonia efforts such as Sharkenstein or Sam Qualiana’s films Snow Shark and Post Apocalyptic Commando Shark.
That said, Jurassic Shark is still a poorly made film. The acting varies between the adequate and the amateurish – in particular, the two girls who sun on the beach in bikinis in the opening scene. There is an irritating performance from Angela Parent who is meant to play a tough bad ass gang leader but delivers everything in a demanding voice that hits a shrill pitch. The sound quality is often very variable – the scenes with the two scientists talking in a stairwell near the start suffers from very echoey sound, the result of the film having no money for redubbing dialogue afterwards.
And in particular, there are some very crappy digital shark effects. In fact, this cheapness affects the film’s plot, limiting the number of actual shark appearances. As a result, not much happens and a good part of the film involves both parties just doing lots of walking across the island with infighting amongst them, before somebody is occasionally attacked by a shark.
There were two sequels Jurassic Shark 2: Aquapocalypse (2021) and Jurassic Shark 3: Seavenge (2023), both made by Z-movie specialist Mark Polonia.
