Sharknado
2013 · Directed by Anthony C. Ferrante
Original language: English
- action
- comedy
- horror
- science fiction
- tv movie
The story
A freak hurricane hits Los Angeles, causing man-eating sharks to be scooped up in tornadoes and flooding the city with shark-infested seawater. Surfer and bar-owner Fin sets out with his friends Baz and Nova to rescue his estranged wife April and teenage daughter Claudia.
What it’s like
Bright, cheap-looking Southern California sunshine goes flat and sickly as a storm rolls over the coast, all green-screen skies, wobbling handheld shots, and roaring CGI tornadoes that look proudly fake. The palette is saturated and TV-bright, with flooded streets, bikinis, palm trees and fluorescent hospital corridors, and the sound is a loud, cheerful blend of rock-leaning score, screaming, chainsaw revs and wet thuds. Editing moves briskly, cutting between sharks, helicopters and self-aware one-liners, so the rhythm feels like channel-surfing a jokey disaster broadcast. Violence is frequent and cartoonish: sharks bite and burst through people, chainsaws and bloodless gore appear, but nothing lingers, and the horror is deliberately silly rather than frightening. Sexual content is minimal, language mild. It suits a lazy Friday night with friends, a ridiculous comedy rewatch, or a group watch where the point is to laugh at the spectacle. Made for viewers who want camp, big dumb set pieces and a wink, not tension or realism.
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