Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)   CLICK HERE to buy from Blu-ray He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection featuring: Sting of Death, Death Curse of Tartu, The Hooked Generation, The Psychedelic Priest, The Naked Zoo, Mako: Jaws of Death, Whiskey Mountain + documentary They Came from the Swamp Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!

Back in his days in the Philippines, Sonny's (Richard Jaeckel) life was saved by sharks, and he got a special medal from a shaman of a shark-worshipping tribe for it that identifies him as a friend of shark-kind. These days, he's living on an island off Key West, Forida, where he pretty much mingles with the local sharks whom he feeds through a hole in his cabin floor. He's also big on shark preservation, but goes about it mostly by brutally killing shark hunters and feeding them to his friends. And he has become fascinated by Karen (Jennifer Bishop), the underwater dancer at the local bar. One day he sees her almost getting raped by local thugs Pete (Harold Sakata) and Charlie (John Davis Chandler) and saves her from them, then shows her his island and his "friends" - and when she tells this to her husband Barney (Buffy Dee), owner of the bar she dances at, he has the good idea to get a shark from him to be included in her act - with her being protected from the creature by invisible plastic of course. Thing is, Barney's not playing fair and sends out supersonic soundwaves to drive the shark wild, much to Sonny's dismay, who tries to force Barney to return the shark - but he's told off by Karen instead, which breaks his heart as he thought she'd understand him. This of course triggers something in him, and thus he goes on a rampage, killing Pete and Charlie after he has learned they're selling sharks by the dozen as souvenirs, a scientist (Ben Kronen) who has wronged him and one of his sharks, also Barney, and he doesn't even stop at hurting Karen in a very topical way - so it's only a matter of time until shark-killing humankind sets its collective eyes on him, too ...

Obviously, this film was inspired by the success of last year's blockbuster Jaws, and frankly, it's only fitting that William Grefé, who has been making Florida-set and maritime-based creature features for 10 or so years, would put his own spin on shark horror - and while in terms of pure craftmanship and budget, this movie is no match for Spielberg's film, it is on the other hand a film that shows much more sympathy for the sharks themselves, and it actually uses real sharks to portray its sharks. And the result is ... well, not really a great film, but it plays a nice variation on the animal horror genre by actually (and also more accurately) making us humans the real monsters, within the genre formula, with all mainstays firmly in place - and somehow, at least for horror afficionados, this is just nice to watch for a change.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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