Intentionally making a “so bad it’s good” movie is a lot harder than you might initially think. There’s a fine line between accurately emulating low-brow filming techniques in a sincere homage to trashy cinema and lazily shooting a cheap cash-grab with no attention to detail. After all, coming up with an absurd premise involving extraterrestrial zombies or supernatural sharks is the easy part – the hard part is stretching that concept out into a feature without boring the audience.
That’s why I was so intrigued by Japan’s latest offbeat horror-comedy, Hot Spring Shark Attack, as the film appeared to have a little more going on than its Syfy-produced rivals. An aquatic thriller blending high-effort schlock with modern bad cinema tropes that combines miniatures and handmade puppets with obvious green screens and PS2-level CGI, this peculiar reimagining of shark horror might just be one of the most unique releases in recent memory.
Written and directed by first-time filmmaker Morihito Inoue, Hot Spring Shark Attack initially feels like the Japanese answer to the wave of schlocky shark movies inspired by the Sharknado franchise and its equally absurd follow-ups. However, instead of simply replicating the western formula in a new location, Inoue decided to inject the concept with generous helping of local flavor – as well as a slew of modern visual references that put the flick’s humor more in line with what you might expect from online sketch comedies.
In the film, we follow the residents of a hot spring resort town in coastal Japan as they slowly realize that they’re under attack by a ridiculously flexible species of prehistoric shark that can squeeze its way through pipes and underground tunnels in order to hunt its unsuspecting prey. Local Police Chief Denbei (Kiyobumi Kaneko) must then team up with the greedy Mayor Kanichi (Fujimura Takuya) and marine biologist Mayumi (Nakanishi Yuu) in order to save the town from this waterborne threat. Along the way, they discover a secret weapon in the form of the mysterious Macho (Sumiya Shiina) and his miraculous hand-to-hand combat skills.
As is often the case with absurdist genre films that intentionally lean into bad taste, the script here mostly serves as a narrative skeleton for a series of humorous vignettes involving rubbery sharks and their gory antics. At first, these gags range from bathhouse massacres to bubbling traps in front of playground slides, but the movie eventually escalates into Kaiju-inspired madness as the stakes become ridiculously high and the JSDF attempts to fight off a large-scale invasion.
This over-the-top conflict is brought to life through chaotic visuals incorporating stock visual effects and wonky 3D models, but Hot Spring Shark Attack also makes use of charming hand-crafted puppets and hilariously mismatched miniatures – with most scenes featuring a silly combination of both visual and practical effects. While the end result is never believable, it’s consistently entertaining. I mean, how can you dislike a movie where the evil sharks whisper “shark” to themselves like bloodthirsty Pokémon?
Some of the old-school effects harken back to Japan’s glorious history of miniature-heavy Tokusatsu and Kaiju productions, but I’d argue that there’s also a much more modern inspiration on display here. The obvious green screens and cartoony fights are surprisingly more in line with over-the-top internet humor than any previous form of low-brow cinema, with this curious distinction actually becoming one of Hot Spring Shark Attack’s biggest strengths.
It’s hard not to think about the Angry Video Game Nerd or even old Channel Awesome sketches during silly moments like Macho’s final showdown against the swarm of sharks, with the biggest difference being that Inoue is attempting to blend this style with traditional filmmaking. While I understand that some viewers might find these clashing aesthetics off-putting, I admire the willingness to try out something new within a crowded genre.
Unfortunately, the script isn’t quite as entertaining as the flick’s visual flair. Unexpected details like the abrupt change in protagonist as the typically antagonistic mayor goes through a redemption arc are appreciated (and Macho obviously steals the show whenever he’s onscreen), but the movie gives us little reason to care about these two-dimensional tropes masquerading as characters. In fact, most of their interactions are relegated to simply reacting to the sharks rather than developing meaningful relationships or personalities.
Additionally, while it might seem silly to complain about logical inconsistencies in a movie about sharks that can squeeze through indoor plumbing, I couldn’t help but get a little flustered by how the movie goes back on its setup by showing the sharks casually swimming on through asphalt like Kitty Pryde from the X-Men. This doesn’t make any less sense than having them shoot out electricity or emit explosive methane gas, but I would have appreciated it if the filmmakers had established some solid ground rules for our toothy villains.
Despite these issues, I couldn’t bring myself to stop grinning like a little kid throughout the majority of the flick’s breezy 77-minutes. Flawed as it may be, this is exactly the movie that the filmmakers set out to make, and most of its limitations come off as charming rather than grating due to the simple fact that the cast and crew were clearly having a great time.
Your overall enjoyment of Hot Spring Shark Attack will mostly depend on your tolerance for Japanese excess and visual gags that wouldn’t look out of place in a 2010 YouTube video, but if you’re anything like me and value hand-crafted laughs over traditionally competent filmmaking, I think it’s safe to say that you’ll also have a blast with Inoue’s oddball debut.
Hot Spring Shark Attack will be available in select theaters and VOD July 11.
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