A decade or so back there was an explosion of animal based comedy horror films that had ridiculous premises, off the top of my head I can think of Sharknado and Birdemic to name just two. The idea of outlandish creature features never appealed to me, so I didn't actually watch any to my knowledge. The Morihito Inoue written and directed Hot Spring Shark Attack (original title Onsen shaku) is a modern example from that genre, this Japanese comedy horror is ridiculous from start to finish, kind of what I expected, but more fun than I anticipated.
In the coastal town of Atsumi, the mayor has recently had a project for a giant new hot spring facility completed. This coincides with the disappearance of visitors to the centre, and it is feared that a shark is somehow responsible. A shark expert comes to the city and concludes that an ancient shark long believed extinct has been released from its undersea hibernation due to the building of the hot spring, and is now using the pipes to travel up from the sea and eat visitors. Not long after this theory is proved correct, sink holes appear all over Atsumi and people begin being swallowed up by sharks, for it is not just one, but a whole group of these creatures dubbed 'hot spring sharks'. The town is evacuated, and after a government attack submarine is destroyed it is feared that Atsumi will need to be totally destroyed to contain the threat. The mayor, along with the shark expert, and a mysterious strong silent man named Macchi, decide to do one last ditch effort to stop the sharks and save the town.
I'm about due to leave my house at the time of typing and so I will try and speed run through this review. Hot Spring Shark Attack is everything what I expected, but it benefits by not being dull. The effects are as expected ridiculous, but they serve the comedic nature well. There is a lot of CGI used for the sharks and their attacks, there isn't really much effort made to make these creatures look realistic. Occasionally puppets are used, but mainly it is CGI. This also applies to the sink holes that appear, in random bits of road these pools of water open up for the shark to attack, before sealing back up again with no logic for how that is happening. This also relates to the sharks being able to 'swim' along the paths and roads of the town, their fins somehow popping up through the concrete without doing any lasting damage. Shark attacks are plentiful, but with the conveniently fast evacuation of the town, this is more front loaded when it comes to shark carnage. Being a comedy horror, the second half may have less people being attacked, but the number and types of sharks explodes to farcical levels, and of course being a comedy horror, there may just be a king of the sharks that makes a very impressive and daunting appearance for the action packed finale.
Characters as a whole are larger than life and over the top, and their actions are just as crazy. From the police chief who prevents swimmers heading into the ocean by shooting the words (something along the lines of) 'Stay out the water' into the sand with his pistol, to the muscly and mostly silent Macchi who is somehow able to punch the ground powerfully enough to scare off sharks, and later has lots of anime style underwater fights against literal armies of sharks! The story was nothing too special, about what I expected for this type of movie, but it rarely got boring. I appreciated that within half an hour events had increased to ridiculous levels, and with the characters, I found the weaselly mayor becoming one of the main protagonists to be refreshing, and his character arc where he goes from a moron to a likeable and brave moron enjoyable.
I feel films like this can be an acquired taste. Personally, this one had enough going for it that I was rarely clock watching. It might be some dumb entertainment, but it was fun as the piece of obvious silly escapism it had been set out to be. With adequate special effects, a likeable cast, and plenty of stupid moments, Hot Spring Shark Attack made for a nice, if partially forgettable madcap creature feature. Hot Spring Shark Attack debuts with special previews at various Alamo Drafthouse locations on Wednesday 9th July, and will open theatrically for extended runs and special engagements on Friday 11th July.
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