The Shark Film Office

Planet of the Sharks  (2016) Dir.: Mark Atkins TC4P Rating: 4/9 Species: mutated great white with amplified telepathic abilities as Alpha leader of all sharks in the film; various non-mutated species of sharks, specifically hammerheads and bulls can be spotted. The poster immediately to the right of this text speaks heavily of two influences.  The first obvious influence, from even the swiftest sideways glance, is  Jaws , which copies (though in a far more gruesome manner) the original film's image of the gaping maw of a monstrous shark rising up from the deep to swallow humanity whole. From the second influence –  the title of the film itself, Planet of the Sharks –  one can only surmise that someone has finally taken the logical leap in upping the renewed interest in the popular Planet of the Apes franchise, flooded the entire planet, and simply replaced the original concept's primates with sharks. I figured that such a thing might happen at some point a...

Monster from the Ocean Floor   (1954) Dir.: Wyott Ordung TC4P Rating: 4/9 Creatures: shark, octopus, and a monstrous octopus-like thing with a glowing eye. Monsters, nuclear waste, girls in trouble, sharks... some of the essential elements of low-budget "B" movie thrills back in the 1950s. It helps even more if the girl is in a swimsuit and is wet half of the film, and if the monster is a giant octopus of some indeterminate species, and if the giant octopus has a single eye the size of a cargo hatch and the creature glows due to possible exposure to nuclear testing. And, oh yeah, sharks... Roger Corman had all of these elements down already in 1954 in his very first full producing credit,  Monster from the Ocean Floor . The film is clearly influenced by the previous year's big monster hit,  The Creature from the Black Lagoon , and Corman and first-time director Wyott Ordung seem to be taking great pains to try and replicate the thrilling underwater sequences that mad...