bait

There’s an art to making a really good creature feature. You can’t be too silly (like Piranha 3DD or recent Roger Corman / SyFy Channel dreck such as Sharktopus) or too depressing (like recent remakes of Thing and Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark). It’s a fine line between ludicrous and ludicrously amusing. And even when a film hits the nail on the head, the best it can hope for is pleasing an audience of like-minded weirdos. For those searching for that kind of entertainment, Bait is just such a movie.

It starts with a premise so preposterous you have to read it twice. After a tsunami hits a seaside Australian resort, a few lucky survivors stay above water in a flooded supermarket. Yet the underwater aisles are now patrolled by a pair of great white sharks who have their eyes on something fresher than whatever’s left in the deli case! So, just to review, that’s great white sharks eating people in a supermarket. If that synopsis alone makes you want to watch, then you won’t be disappointed.

Because Bait actually works pretty hard to entertain you. Sometimes too hard. Beginning with a botched robbery attempt, the psycho criminal element wreaking havoc among the survivors, was really unnecessary. And, for those with 3D TVs, there’s a constant barrage of comin’ at ya moments that are nothing but a distraction for the rest of us cellar-dwelling technophobes. Yet, the film (and it’s actors) never treat the ridiculous circumstances with anything other than complete respect. (Except maybe when they build a homemade shark cage out of shopping carts and zip ties.) It’s that sort of straight-faced bravado – trying pull off the impossible no matter how low the budget - that makes Bait a nice addition to one’s weekend monsterfest.