By Dan Skip Allen

2026 is the year of the shark movie. Already this year there have been 3 shark films, “Deep Water”, “Trash” and now “Chum”. Last year there was the widely popular horror film “Dangerous Animals” starring Jai Courtney about a fish boat captain that captured unsuspecting people in Australia and would try to feed them to the sharks in the open waters. He liked to record the kills for his own enjoyment and for posterity sake. “Chum” is eerily very similar to that movie with its story and plot. The execution of the film has a lot to be desired, though. The later film was nowhere near as good as “Dangerous Animals”.

Tina (Alice Eve) and Tom (Eric Michael Cole) are about to be married. They are staying on the island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea and decide to go on an excursion out to sea to relax and to get some sun with the rest of their wedding party. While out on the open water, the boat they are on breaks down, and the captain falls in the ocean. He is eaten by a deadly great one shark. The passengers of the boat are rescued by a nearby fisherman. He helps them and then drugs them and ties them up so he can use them as bait for the shark he’s been hunting for weeks. The fisherman had an atelier motive for helping the wedding party. Now, the group are in a fight for their lives.

 What the director, Jonathan Zuck, and writers of this film want you as the viewer to know is that the happily married couple aren’t exactly that happy. That’s how the beginning of the film starts. As the movie progresses, they have to work together to get out of the situation they are in. That being said, they both end up in very dangerous situations while under close surveillance by the fisherman who has his own reasons for doing what he’s doing. This struggle the Newlyweds are in helps to bond their relationship as a couple. All their issues are in the past, and the squabbles are put to the side so they can save themselves and their friends. They have to do that for their own survival. 

This movie is pretty formulaic in its construct. The main antagonist, other than the shark, has a reason for doing what he’s doing, and the innocent group he’s threatening have their own set of issues. One by one, the group died, and the audience is left with the two billed stars of the film. It’s a pretty simple concept, and it’s not trying to hide that fact. Considering there was a very similar film last year, it just makes this one come across as an inferior copy. With a year already strewn with shark attack films, it just made me feel tired because I’ve seen enough of them already this year and last. I’m a big fan of “Jaws” but enough is enough. 

The movie uses CGI to create very well-done shark and underwater sequences. The camera follows the viewpoint of the shark as its hunting bloody bodies flailing around in the water. The camera is like our perspective in a way. We are seeing POV of what is happening in front of our eyes. The shark attack film has come a long way since the days of a mechanical shark “Bruce” kept breaking down in “Jaws”. With technology the way it is today, you think the shark would look a little bit more realistic. It was pretty obvious that the shark and the underwater scenes were CGI. These sequences took me out of the movie.

“Chum” is just another in a long line of shark attack films that have become formulaic and tiresome. Animal attack movies, in general, have almost nothing to offer anymore. Zuck and company tried their best to give audiences a new way to look at a shark attack film, but we saw this very thing last year. He is a day late and a dollar short. Eve and Cole do what they can to try and salvage the film with their performances, but even they are doing clichéd things I’ve seen before in other horror movies. The story is old, and the CGI is very noticeable regarding the shark and underwater scenes.  This film was just too little, too late as far as I’m concerned because I saw “Dangerous Animals” last year and I had a lot of fun with that movie.

 🌟 🌟 stars