Director – Sam Qualiana (The Legend of Six Fingers, Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast)
Starring – Simeon Qualiana (Swamp Squad of the Dead, The Legend of Six Fingers), Mike O’Keefe (WrestleMassacre, Return to Nuke Em High: Volume 1), and Andrew Elias (Killer Rack, Battledogs)
Release Date – 2018
Rating – 3/5
Horror has and will always be a huge part of my life. The genre is vast, like the oceans, with more sub-genres than you can shake a harpoon at. As much as I love the genre I have to admit that some of these sub-genres are just not for me. Jaws is a classic horror and summer blockbuster but one of the films that I just can’t get into. People tell me that it’s amazing but I just fail to see it.
I typically avoid the shark flicks but a few months back I crossed paths with one I couldn’t resist. Director Sam Qualiana announced that he had completed a new film Post Apocalyptic Commando Shark. With a title like that I couldn’t resist. I reached out to him and he was cool enough to hook me up with a copy. Thanks Sam!
**Spoiler Alert**The film takes place sometime after a nuclear disaster. Soviet Russia has invaded the U.S. They brought with them genetically altered sharks that are humanoid in appearance and was created by an evil German scientist. They use these beast to take hold of America with a band of resistance fighters fighting for their freedom. The resistance is struggling to gain any traction and just when hope is lost an American scientist has made a discovery that will change the tide of the war. **Spoiler Alert**
I wasn’t expecting a movie that would forever change the way I view horror and sci-fi flicks but I was expecting something that was funny. Post Apocalyptic Commando Sharks was a fun movie experience but there was several things that could be changed to create an even better film.
The acting in this one is campy and works very well with what Qualiana is trying to achieve. The characters are all entertaining and make the scenes fun. Some stand out more than others but that doesn’t make them all better than the other. This just means more emphasis was placed on certain characters during the writing process.
The story for this one has is not consistent. I was really looking forward to this one. The title made my imagination run wild with so many possibilities. I was expecting a film in the same line as Mad Max or the biker gang post apocalyptic Italian films like 1990: Bronx Warriors but what I was given was something much different. Doesn’t make this one a bad movie but it just doesn’t fit the title. Instead of Mad Max meets Sharkenstein we get Sharkenstein meets Red Dawn. The setting for the film is post apocalyptic America but the movie doesn’t look that way. People are still being people with no change to their behavior. Hell, they still have cookouts and bonfires even with the threat of having their soft innards ripped out their peepholes from commando sharks. Now, with all that being said, the movie does not take itself seriously. We get several laughs throughout the film with great timing but there is several scenes that just drag on or repeat the gag from an earlier scene.
Finally, if you want blood this one has it but if you want gore you will be disappointed. The sharks looks campy and the kills are even campier. The effects are minimal but it works for the film. Overall, Post Apocalyptic Commando Shark is a fun late night war film with some horror and a lot of comedy. I respect what they were going for but there is some much more that could have been done with it. Check it out.
