The Last Shark Aka Great White

Title: The Last Shark Aka Great White
Director: Enzo G. Castellari
Released: 1981
Starring: James Franciscus, Vic Morrow, Joyce Lee, Gian Marco, Micaela Pignatelli, Giancarlo Prete, Stefania Girolami

Plot: A 35 foot great white shark terrorises a coastal town preparing for it’s annual windsurfing regatta

Review: A testament to the lasting impact of Jaws which unquestionably helped spark a craze for creature features and especially Shark movies as studios rushed to greenlight anything that could be the next Jaws with this film certainly being one of the more blatant rip off especially when you consider that it was released in Japan as Jaws Returns. Unsurprisingly Universal didn’t take too kindly to such an obvious rip off and won an injunction to have the film pulled from the stateside cinemas but not before it had grossed $18 million in its first month while being well received in it’s native Italy were it became the 72nd highest grossing film of the year.

Outside of the promotion materials the similarities only become all the more obvious with Vic Marrow’s shark hunter Ron being a combination of Quint and Hooper, while we also have the mayor who refuses to let the idea of a shark stop the big tourist draw of the windsurfing regatta and the rebellious kids who refuse to listen to the shark warnings. The only real difference here is that our Brody character is now the horror writer Peter (a nod perhaps to Jaws writer Peter Benchley). 

While the similarities between this film and Jaws are more obvious than the majority of the Jaws clones, one of the biggest issues for the film that it’s a tediously plotted movie and despite giving us an attack on a windsurfer early on which looks great the film wastes too much time building up to it’s next set piece. This of course could be excused if the time was being used to develop the cast of characters but it’s not as they all remain largely one note creations whose personalities don’t get much deeper than the role they play in the film. 

Thankfully the film does make up for things slightly with some gory attack sequences once the shark turns up and there is a charm to how this shark rises up even if it does become clear that this is pretty much all the animatronic can do. Castellari makes up for the limitations with some creative nature footage of great white sharks which also means that there’s usually a character hanging a large piece of meat in the water to really sell this footage which of course still stands out especially when some of it is a lower grade quality than the film stock the film is being shot on. The highlight of the film though is seeing this shark take down a helicopter which really makes up for the attack on the regatta which consists of a homicidal buoy weaving amongst the windsurfers and knocking them off a scene which would have made for a spectacular set piece had the shark actually done more than knocking people off their boards. 

Outside of some fun gory attack sequences the film does however leave little to offer once these sequences are removed like the many limbs this shark shows down on including the legs of the Peter’s daughter which it was too hard to see and not instantly think of the superior Orca which is a Jaws clone far more worth checking out than this largely forgettable feature.

Empire of the Ants

Title: Empire of the Ants
Director: Bert I. Gordon
Released: 1977
Starring: Joan Collins, Robert Lansing, John David Carson, Albert Salmi, Jacqueline Scott, Pamela Shoop, Robert Pine

Plot: When a barrel of radioactive waste washes up on an island it transforms the local ant population into giants who soon start preying on the locals. 

Review: Loosely based on the H,G, Wells short story with this film being the third and final film in American International Pictures H.G. Wells film cycle which includes The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977) and Gordon’s own Food of the Gods. As mainstay of AIP Gordon was certainly no stranger to everyday things growing to ginormous size with his filmography including The Amazing Colossal Man, Earth Vs. The Spider, War of the Colossal Beast and Village of the Giants which kind of makes him the perfect director to make a movie about giant ants and a promise he certainly more than delivers on. 

Opening with a nature documentary drawl about ants, their behaviour and more key their use of pheromones to control which certainly will come into play later in the film. From here we get to see a bunch of sketchy workers dumping barrels of toxic waste into the ocean who also clearly shop at the same store as Cronenberg got his surgical scrubs for Dead Ringers. Meanwhile shady land developer Marilyn (Collins) is trying to sell off worthless land as beachfront property on an island that one of these barrels has now washed up on turning the ants who feed on its leaking silvery goo into giant ants. 

The group of potential buyers are a real mixed group with Joan Collins being the one who really stands out as Marilyn while also commanding the biggest cut of the budget to appear in the film. However when it comes to the other members of the group most of them suffer from a lack anything other than age to help them stand out more with most of them being ant chow by the half way point which is also when the film takes a surprising twist by having the group stumble onto a nearby town which has been taken over by the Ants and using the queen ant pheromones to brainwash the residents into being their slaves at the nearby sugar mill

Handling not only directing and screenplay duties Gordon also handled the special effects for the film which consist of giant prop ants which brought back memories of the B-movie classic Them! Gordon also uses live ants to pretty charming effect whether through the use of process shots which combined close up footage of the ants with footage of the actors or by shooting them on a miniature set lined with location photos which he’d used for Beginning of the End. This footage shot with the live ants at times looks like it was achieved with stop motion and for the most part works well with the exception of a couple of scenes where ants look like they are climbing into thin air.

A fun romp which certainly stands out more than most creature feature fodder with it’s halfway twist which only helps kick the film up a notch much like the giants ants being revealed early on rather than being teased out which also keeps the action quota high including a great looking car jump stunt which logically makes no sense, but then neither do most of the Fast and Furious movies either.