Shark Encounters of the Third Kind is a 2020 American science fiction horror film about hostile aliens that crash land in the ocean. As part of their invasion mission, the aliens use brain control to make sharks terrorise a small town that is full of secrets. It’s up to a disparate group of townspeople to sort it out but in the end, it’s sharks versus aliens in a surprising climax…
Directed and edited by Mark Polonia (Return to Splatter Farm; Amityville Island; Sharkenstein; Bigfoot vs. Zombies; Feeders; et al) from a screenplay written by John Oak Dalton (Scarecrow County; Jurassic Prey; Amityville Death House), the Polonia Brothers Entertainment production stars Jennie Russo, Titus Himmelberger, Natalie Hallead, Tim Hatch, Jeff Kirkendall and Steve Diasparra.
The synth soundtrack score was composed by Greg Stanina (Virus Shark; Return to Splatter Farm; Land Shark; Amityville Exorcism and Triclops).
Special effects by Brett Piper (director of Outpost Earth; The Screaming Dead; Drainiac!; Queen Crab; They Bite: et al).
Reviews:
“Among its better features is the wholly impressive manner this simply dives into the cheesy nature of what’s going on here. The opening shots of the crazy alien ship coming to Earth, attacking the satellites in orbit and then melding psychically with the sharks after scanning the oceans around them gives a pretty decent indication of where this one is heading…” Don’s World of Horror and Exploitation
“Even for cheapo Polonia movies, this has far too little shark, though maybe juuuust enough bitch-tit aliens. So at least one component was rationed properly. The nuttiest thing is, it has one of the more coherent plots in a Polonia film in a long while.” Dustin Baker
“There’s little in the way of sense and far too many characters crammed into the film’s short running time. Aside from a committed cast and an enthusiastic score there’s very little else here to recommend […] lacks a coherent structure and unfortunately doesn’t even have the potential to be a great ‘bad’ movie, instead, it’s just ‘bad’.” My Bloody Reviews
” …in terms of shark movies, I can honestly say I have definitely seen worse! At least Shark Encounters of the Third Kind is crazy enough to be fun – it’s the kind of “throw ideas at the wall till they stick” kind of filmmaking that can lead to some amazing, and amazingly bizarre, storytelling. And that’s certainly the case here because this is one bizarre film!” Nerdly
” …great practical effects (severed limbs and a floating severed head looked pretty cool and very believable) and a lot of pretty decent beach shots which were unfortunately used over and over (and over) again throughout the film. All of the digital effects were hilariously bad […] Shark Encounters of the Third Kind was exactly what I expected it to be. A very cheesy sci-fi horror with a silly plot and subpar acting but I can’t say it wasn’t fun.” Nightmarish Conjurings
“I have become intoxicated by the charm and naïveté of the PBE world. Is it perfect? No! Not by a long way. The sharks look like they’ve been recycled from other films. There’re loads of stock footage slotted in, the acting is a bit hit and miss, and the effects are definitely dodgy — but I don’t care!” Run Pee
“If you’ve seen Amityville Island you’ll quickly notice the writer wasn’t the only thing Polonia recycled from that film. Most of the shots of the barely animated shark swimming around are from it as well. Needless to say, it looks nothing like the more animated one that attacks people. Or the real ones that turn up in stock footage […] Along with CGI explosions superimposed over static images and alien masks you can see the ends of. It’s all bottom of the barrel even by his standards.” Voices from the Balcony
MOVIES and MANIA rating:
Cast and characters:
Jennie Russo … Kay Radtke
Titus Himmelberger … Alan Cason
Natalie Himmelberger … Camilla (as Natalie Hallead)
Tim Hatch … Bennett
Jeff Kirkendall … Sloan
Steve Diasparra … Nesbo
Yolie Canales … Muriel
Nicholas Olson … Zeke
Todd Carpenter … Lipton
Kate Farber … Chrissie
Kathryn Sue Young … Sapkowski
Christopher Beacom … Ledbetter
Dave Fife … Dalloway
Wyatt Wood … Luc
Technical details:
1 hour 15 minutes
Release:
Distributed by Wild Eye Releasing and available on Amazon Prime
MOVIES and MANIA provides an aggregated range of film reviews from a wide variety of credited sources, plus our own reviews and ratings, in one handy web location. We are a genuinely independent website and rely solely on the minor income generated by internet ads to stay online and expand. Please support us by not blocking ads. If you do block ads please consider making a small donation to our running costs instead. We'd really appreciate it. Thank you. As an Amazon Associate, the owner occasionally earns a small amount from qualifying linked purchases.
