Editorials
We Need More Killer Shark Movies
If you’ve been paying attention to horror news this week, you may know that Universal announce the Blu-Ray releases of all three Jaws sequels (Jaws 2 fans unite!). Columbia Pictures also released a terrifying new still from the new Blake Lively thriller The Shallows. If you’re a regular reader of my posts, you may know that I’m a huge fan of aquatic horror (it’s my favorite sub-genre after slashers), so I’m particularly excited about all of this news. It may be is too early to declare this a renaissance for the killer shark film, but it does make me hopeful that if the Jaws sequels sell well and The Shallows can turn into the sleeper hit of the summer (it won’t be a blockbuster, but Columbia must have a lot of confidence in it to be giving it a theatrical release it in the heart of summer), then we may see more killer shark movies getting released in the future.
Once in a while, a really good killer shark movie will come along. After Jaws was released in 1975, it was followed by a slew of copycats with films like Piranha and Orca. The 80s saw a lack of shark films after Jaws fatigue set in with Jaws 3-D and Jaws: The Revenge (slashers became the name of the game with mainstream horror releases at that time). Sharks made a return in the 90s with films like Deep Blue Sea and (sort of) the Shark Attack films. In the 2000s we saw Open Water make sharks terrifying again before SyFy came around in the 2010s with films like Sharknado, Sharktopus and Jersey Shore Shark Attack, making jokes of the animals.
With a serious shark film getting released in the summer and Universal finally (finally) releasing the Jaws sequels on Blu-Ray (Jaws 2 is amazing. I don’t care what anyone says), it seems like the perfect time for the ocean’s deadliest predator to make a return to mainstream horror and be scary again. Let’s face it, sharks are terrifying, and the fact that they’ve become a joke in Hollywood is fairly depressing. We must now rely on Jaume Collet-Serra to revive the sub-genre and make it relevant in the eyes of the audience. No pressure though, Mr. Collet-Serra.
The issue with many killer shark films is that it becomes difficult to keep coming up with reasons for the characters to go back in the water. The most recent well-reviewed killer shark films Open Water and The Reef fixed this problem by having their characters stranded in the middle of the ocean, and the Australian film Bait 3D trapped its characters in a flooded grocery store after a tsunami. The Shallows will follow this trend by having Blake Lively stranded on a rock 200 yards from shore.
It’s understandable that major studios are afraid to dip back into killer shark territory. The aforementioned SyFy films have most likely scared them into thinking they won’t make any money (thanks, Syfy). If they would just give a script a chance, then a talented director could really make a fantastic killer shark movie. There really isn’t much more that needs to be said on the subject. Basically, I’m just tired of sharks being the butt of whatever joke Hollywood is making. Maybe some big wig will read this and thing “Hey, maybe that guy is right. Let’s finance a killer shark movie!” This is highly unlikely, but a man can dream, can’t he?
What are your thoughts on killer shark movies? Do you feel that it will be impossible to make them scary again? Or does the right movie need to be made? Will moviegoers flock to the theater to see a horror movie about a shark even in a post-Sharknado world? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below or shoot me a Tweet!
From child-eating witches to village-burning dragons, fairy tales have always had a foot in the horror genre. That’s why it makes sense that, for every The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia, there are also darker and more adult-oriented stories about magical worlds inhabited by ravenous monsters and cruel villains.
Funnily enough, these sinister tales were precisely the ones that I gravitated towards back when I was a kid, and I was reminded of this while watching Netflix’s recently released I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s first ever feature-length stop-motion animation and one hell of an entertaining parable about the intersection between fiction and reality.
In honor of this special kind of horror-adjacent fairy tale, today I’d like to share this list recommending six Dark Fantasy films that horror fans might enjoy.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining Dark Fantasy as fantastical stories that don’t shy away from the more macabre elements that fuel classic fairy tales. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own grim favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
I’m fascinated by bizarre attempts at blockbuster filmmaking – especially when the resulting movies are somehow still fun despite their corporate-mandated origins. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is precisely one of these strangely compelling studio projects, as this surprisingly successful action-thriller boasts a lot of heart (and tongue-in-cheek humor) for a CGI-heavy creature feature.
Directed by Dead Snow’s Tommy Wirkola, Witch Hunters re-frames the classic fairy tale as an origin story for a duo of badass monster-slayers. Of course, it’s the flick’s anachronistic aesthetic and overall visual flair that make it stand out from other action-horror endeavors from around the same time.
5. The Wolf House (2018)
Made in the tradition of faux cursed films in the same vein as Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made, the eerie backstory to 2018’s Chilean animated flick The Wolf House (La Casa Lobo in the original Spanish) already makes it a nightmarish experience before the flick even really begins.
After all, the movie is presented to us as a faux propaganda film produced by the leader of a death cult (heavily inspired by the real life Colonia Dignidad), with this hybrid animated feature using complex movie magic to simulate a single uninterrupted shot as it tells the story of a lazy young girl who runs away from an isolated colony and encounters a creepy old house in the woods.
4. The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Out of all the Monty Python alumni, Terry Gilliam has had the most interesting career outside of the original comedy group. From fascinating canceled projects (such as his scrapped adaptation of Watchmen) to dystopian parodies that feel more relevant by the minute (1985’s Brazil), even his “lesser” films are still intriguing in their own way.
2005’s The Brothers Grimm is one such project, with this peculiar movie attempting to combine the comedian-turned-filmmaker’s unique visual style with a more blockbuster-oriented plot reimagining the titular brothers as con-artists rather than mere writers. The end result isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it’s still a legitimately fun ride with plenty of memorable monsters and wonderful performances by both the late, great Heath Ledger and Matt Damon.
3. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)
2010’s Dante’s Inferno game may have a reputation as something of an unapologetic God of War clone, but I’d argue that the now-obscure game was aesthetically unique enough to deserve a bigger fanbase. However, while the title remains trapped on the seventh console generation, its highly underrated anime adaptation is a lot easier to get a hold of!
Animated by 6 different studios in order to make the 9 circles of hell feel unique from each other, this may not be a completely faithful adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s poem, but it’s still one heck of a great (not to mention gory) time that I’d highly recommend to fans of Netflix’s take on Castlevania.
2. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
My personal favorite entry in the Underworld franchise, Rise of the Lycans, is a highly ambitious prequel that actually works better if you haven’t had the story spoiled to you by the previous Underworld films.
While the rest of the series features plenty of urban fantasy elements as the movies combine machine guns and modern environments with gothic storytelling, Patrick Tatopoulos’ prequel fully embraces its fantastical origins and tells a classic tale about a doomed romance between a werewolf and a vampire amid a medieval uprising.
And the best part is that we get a lot more Michael Sheen as the fan-favorite Lucian.
1. Solomon Kane (2011)
One of my personal favorite movies on this list, MJ Basset’s criminally underseen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s other iconic warrior is thoroughly steeped in horror ambience and features plenty of memorable monsters. However, it’s also a classic origin story for a swashbuckling hero that wouldn’t feel out of place in a tabletop RPG.
While I’ve already written about how the film deftly combines both horror and fantasy elements without breaking the bank, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to recommend the bizarre movie where James Purefoy expertly plays a puritan John Wick.
It’s just too bad that we never got the other films in this intended trilogy.
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