Twenty 20-Sharks is a chronological survey of shark attack movies. In this entry, we look at another Italian sharksploitation flick, this one starring a real American actor: Night of the Sharks!
We’re entering the part of this project where one of two things is happening: Either I’m already getting burned out on the idea of watching a bunch of shark movies and I’m just too punch-drunk to examine them critically, or the films I’m picking are just plain too goofy and weird for me to actually hate. Either way, we’re jumping ahead to the late 1980s with this entry’s feature: 1988’s Night of the Sharks.
The first issue I have with this film is the title. Night of the Sharks somehow gets both the object and the subject of that title wrong. Not only does the film take place primarily during the day, but there’s also only one shark in it! And we can’t even chalk it up to a translation error, because in the original Italian, it’s called La notte degli squali; literally, The Night of the Sharks.
But ya know what? I’m willing to roll with that because, against my better judgment, I actually had a really good time with this one. Night of the Sharks is the kind of trash you used to find airing as a Sunday matinee on your local network affiliate right after the morning televised church service and right before NASCAR. (I grew up in the American South; this was 100% the vibe.) It’s competent trash, fully aware of the kind of movie it is, but trash nonetheless.
Night of the Sharks finds us in Cancun, where an American shark hunter named David (Treat Williams1) lives in happy seclusion. By day he’s bringing in sharks for money with his partner Paco (Antonio Fargas), by night he’s bedding local beauty Juanita (Nina Soldano). Seems pretty clear what drew Treat Williams to this project from the jump. But as we meet him, he’s rescuing a shark attack victim, and soon after has to stop a one-eyed shark known as The Cyclops from dragging his boat out to sea. David’s living the damn dream, honestly.
Meanwhile, we cut to Miami, where David’s brother James (Carlo Mucari) is preparing to blackmail a rich industrialist named Rosentski (John Steiner). James has audio files of Rosentski attempting to contact and bribe the President, and demands $2 million in diamonds or else the tapes are going to the press. Rosentski complies, and then sends his goons after James to recover the diamonds, kill James and get the tapes back. Unbeknownst to them, however, James has mailed a CD copy of the files to David in Cancun. James then flies to Cancun himself to try and cut his brother in on the score, which goes about as well as you’d expect…
Rosentski’s hit squad immediately blows up his seaplane the second he steps out. David manages to fish him out of the water before The Cyclops can eat them both, but James succumbs from… Something. The movie isn’t super clear on what part of all this actually killed him. David understands the situation well enough to take the CD, hiding it in a giant hunk of horse meat and feeding it to The Cyclops. Let’s see those bastards find it now.
Of course, none of this stops Rosentski from trying again, this time roping in David’ ex-wife Liz (Janet Agren) to try and talk some sense into him. All this really accomplishes is somehow getting David laid and getting the two of them briefly back together, long enough for them to take a nice boat excursion so that Rosentski’s hitman Tony can blow up their boat. This time The Cyclops finally catches and eats someone, chowing down on Liz.
This film is so light on plot that it almost feels like a Looney Tunes bit, where we just watch David outsmart a bunch of idiot hitmen over and over again, each time letting them get a little bit closer. Eventually, Tony gets a bit smarter, finally kidnapping Juanita and David’s priest buddy Father Mattia (Christopher Connelly), demanding he deliver the CD or else he feeds them both to the shark.
The final stretch of the film finds David using his wits and a knife to lure Tony and his goons into the jungle, picking them off one by one until ultimately David takes to the sea to deal with Tony himself. And you know—you know—what’s about to happen, right? The Cyclops, which up to this point has more or less been a thorn in David’ side, is now going to be the Chekov’s gun that saves the entire day. David lures Tony out into open water, into The Cyclops’ territory, and it’s like the shark was in on the plan, because it rams Tony’s boat and somehow pulls him under.
I’m starting to understand a little bit of Italian B-movie logic here, and if they want us to intuit that a shark pulls a guy under, then by god that’s what they’re gonna do. We don’t need to worry about nitpicky things like realism or special effects. Just have a guy put his hands up in some dirty water to show that he’s been dragged under through the bottom of the boat, it’ll make sense. I kind of respect it, honestly. There’s an efficiency to these movies that I’m starting to respect. Where once it may have seemed like crap movies spinning their wheels to trick us into watching them, now I see filmmakers making do with what they have, and trusting us to get the point.
After all the bad guys are dealt with, David still has to contend with The Cyclops if he wants any hope of retrieving the $2 million in diamonds. The movie does a little fakeout where it seems like David gets eaten, and there’s a little denouement where Juanita and the priest celebrate the money that David gave his life trying to donate to the church. But come on now. This is Treat Williams we’re talking about here. Of course he steps into frame right before the cameras roll!
Night of the Sharks moves quick, plays hard, and gets out even quicker. It’s coming in at the tail end of the 80s sharksploitation boom, but feels both more accomplished and more playful than some of the trash we’ve covered up to this point. Again, I don’t know if it’s just because I’m losing the thread here, or what, but this one is a genuinely fun little movie. Give it a look if you’re in the mood for some 80s shark schlock!2
FINAL RATING
3 stars (out of 5). No joke. It’s solid.
NEXT TIME: Cruel Jaws (1995)
- The same year he starred in Dead Heat.
↩︎ - Night of the Sharks is available to stream on Tubi: The People’s Streaming Service! ↩︎
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