Short Attention Span Review - Devilfish a.k.a. Monster Shark (1984)
Disclaimer: yes, this is another bad movie I love. Been revisiting a lot of those lately. Devilfish is one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life. It is atrocious in too many ways to list in a single review, much less one of my Short Attention Span Reviews. And yet, I love it. This love affair goes all the way back to my teens. A rental store I frequented (Brewer's was the name, and anyone who also hails from lowly southside VA may well have treasured the place as much as I did) had a copy, but it was never available. I guess someone lost it. So, I would look at the box, and given my love for shark movies and Italian horror, it seemed like a potential classic. Honestly, take a gander at that poster. Looks pretty fucking cool, doesn't it? Yeah, I thought so too. Anyway, time passed. No shit, it may have been a year--it was several months at a minimum, and then one fateful day the rental copy showed up. I don't know if someone found it and returned it, or if it had been misplaced somewhere in the store and they located it. Either way, one Friday night it was there. I had to see it, and I was expecting a showstopper. What I beheld that night was an absolute turd, but it had me roaring with laughter. Some of the dialogue is wretched (the sheriff repeatedly says "What we are dealing with is a monster," and his wooden delivery paired with that lovely line gets me every time), many of the performances are far worse (there is a surefire candidate for worst death scene ever filmed included in the picture), the effects are horrendous, and the plot is the worst thing about the movie. But it is somehow entertaining, perhaps because it is so hilariously inept, but also because Lamberto Bava was a good enough director to keep things lively in spite of all the movie's considerable failings. Over the years, I would rent this one often and show it to people for kicks. I even got my parents to watch it one Saturday night, and while my dad did little but groan, my dear departed mother laughed herself silly. It remains a personal favorite for all the wrong reasons, and these days I seem to enjoy it more each time I view it. I'm giving it a C+ here, even though it surely registers as an F. Give me another twenty years and it may raise to a B in my book.
Final Grade: C+
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| Just look at that shit. This movie is fucking terrible. And that's what makes it so awesome. |
