I just saw DEVILFISH/MONSTER SHARK the 1984 Lamberto Bava JAWS rip off. How poor is it? Well, it makes you appreciate Enzo G Castellari's THE GREAT WHITE as the competent fun that it is. Amazing that so many talented people: Dardano Sachetti, Gianfranco Clerici, William Berger, Gianni Garko, etc. ended up on this schlock. The shark is actually a biologically created creature-half octupus, half shark. Mediocre photography, editing, direction, acting, music, writing destroy all possibilities here. Lots of footage of actors speaking absurd dubbed dialogue. There's absolutely no sense of style or suspense. I was hoping it would be a fun bad movie but no such luck. John Old Jr is credited as director. LB made the impressively grim MACABRO, the sub Argento slasher BLADE IN THE DARK, the ultra stylish and gory DEMONIA and the deliriously trashy FOTO DI GIOIA, but he's not what I would call a "good" director and seems to have no unifying aesthetic personality as did his father. I would say he's most effective at creating a kind of sleazy, sanguine junk food banquet.
