MONSTER SHARK: Is Lamberto Bava a good director? in Modern Italian Horror Forum

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MONSTER SHARK: Is Lamberto Bava a good director?

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bobmonel	MONSTER SHARK: Is Lamberto Bava a good director?	Lead	[-]
Registered User Posts: 2738 Nov 3 03 9:56 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tags : None 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.
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Latarnia	Re: MONSTER SHARK: Is Lamberto Bava a good director?	#1	[-]
Registered User Posts: 24691 Nov 4 03 10:39 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	He may have his moments, but you're right, Robert: there's no "unifying aesthetic personality" at work here. At least none that is apparent. Mirek
KJ Gavin	Re: MONSTER SHARK: Is Lamberto Bava a good director?	#2	[-]
Posts: 130 Nov 4 03 5:25 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I agree - Lamberto may be a nice guy - but his work doesn't have any distoinguishing trademarks nor motifs that make it is his own. I must confess however to enjoying the various nods to his fathers work in BLADE, I enjoyed MACABRO - and Demons is fun. Other than that most of it is pretty forgettable.
paura nella	Re: MONSTER SHARK: Is Lamberto Bava a good director?	#3	[-]
Registered User Posts: 3255 Nov 5 03 7:08 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	HEY! I happened to like Monster Shark! Devil Fish is hacked to shreds, witrh good gore cut out, and scenes rearranged that move it at a slower pace. Note that one hears a lot of the same voices in this one that appears in countless Italian and Spanish horror of the 70's and early 80's. Also, that hit man does look a lot like Ivan Rassimov. The cheesey electrical score is good as well. The only thing Devil Fish is good for is heckling on Mystery Science Theatre 3000.
Doug69Ford	Re: MONSTER SHARK: Is Lamberto Bava a good director?	#4	[-]
Registered User Posts: 69 Nov 8 03 8:55 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	MACABRE is wonderful, a real stand-out among the rest of this director's mediocre output. I wonder if it has to do with Pupi Avati's involvement.
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Kaya O		#5	[-]
Registered User Posts: 337 Jul 2 12 11:31 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Last night, I watched MONSTER SHARK from the German dvd and I liked it. It may have been made to cash in on the post-Jaws craze for killer marine beasts, but it's not really a Jaws clone at all, but harks back to the 1950s American monster b-movies with s-f bent. I liked it for the same reason I like cheapo AIP movies in this genre. As such, without comparing it to Italian horror masterpieces, it delivers the goods: cheesy lines uttered by cliche characters, a a monster with low-budget sfx, etc in the vein of 1950s, supplemented by gore and violence of the 1980s as a bonus; fine for me. It surely is much better than the dull TENTACLES. If interested in vintage comics, visit my blog on pre-war and wartime comics & comics tie-ins: http://kayaozkaracalar.blogspot.com/
Koukol 5		#6	[-]
Registered User Posts: 9987 Jul 2 12 1:36 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Kaya O wrote: Last night, I watched MONSTER SHARK from the German dvd and I liked it. It may have been made to cash in on the post-Jaws craze for killer marine beasts, but it's not really a Jaws clone at all, but harks back to the 1950s American monster b-movies with s-f bent. I liked it for the same reason I like cheapo AIP movies in this genre. As such, without comparing it to Italian horror masterpieces, it delivers the goods: cheesy lines uttered by cliche characters, a a monster with low-budget sfx, etc in the vein of 1950s, supplemented by gore and violence of the 1980s as a bonus; fine for me. It surely is much better than the dull TENTACLES. I prefer TENTACLES.
paura nella		#7	[-]
Registered User Posts: 3255 Jul 3 12 8:06 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	As a point of interest, FABIO FRIZZI actually did the score to this film but is credited as Anthony Barrymore.
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