SHARK ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (2020)

SHARK ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (2020)

Tagline: In the Open Water, No One Can Hear You Scream.

(Horror, Sharks, Aliens With Crazy Eyes) [R]

I needed to get gas and kill aliens, and I was all out of gas. No literally, I was almost out of gas!

In this one, some aliens with crazy eyes crash land in the ocean and decide it’s time to mind control some sharks and a few people. This is because they are just really evil and want to terrorize the town nearby. The townspeople are all pretty whacky and several have had alien abduction experiences, while others are looking for Nazi gold in a sunken sea vessel. What sinister forces lurk on “Smash Up” Island and what is the ultimate goal of these nefarious aliens?

First off, if you just read that intro and you figured out what the heck is going on in this dam movie, let me know by commenting below. Secondly, this movie and others in this Polonia Brothers / Wild Eye Releasing efforts have some of the raddest shark movie posters of all time. This one isn’t an exception. Sadly just like QUEEN CRAB and other Polonia Brothers movies, the actual movie is nowhere even remotely as cool as the poster. 

This movie has all the bad CGI of SHARKENSTEIN and maybe even slightly worse. It’s like a bunch of high school film students got together and purposely screwed with a classmate's film to make sure they got a failing grade. I mean, we’ve got puppet sharks, 1980’s animated graphics, really goofy-looking spaceships, and sharks that look like what you get when you pull up “animated shark gif” online. If there is one positive it’s the alien designs. They are gloriously 50s looking which is rad, but everything else is just full-blown crap. 

What this movie did right like a lot of these shark-centered b-movies is make an amazing poster. I absolutely love this thing. The other thing was casting Titus Himmelberger who plays Alan. He’s got some decent b-movie flare and provides at least a minimal level of humor in this thing. Himmelberger was also in SHARKENSTEIN. This movie also has a decent dub-step heavy techno score and I thought it fit perfectly for this film. They also did some decent work on the body parts we see in the aftermath of shark attacks because they were campy looking and I prefer campy stuff, not over realistic stuff. I also liked that this movie wasn’t overly crass. We also get some cool drone shots of crowded beaches at the beginning and the end giving at least the illusion that the production was bigger than it was. I am sure some of that was stock footage, but the fact that they bothered to put it in was somebody at least trying. I also liked the subtle nod to THEY LIVE in one of the lines of dialog. 

Where this movie just totally sucks is just about everything else. The sharks are very very bad, they look absolutely terrible. The graphics are terrible, and the acting from pretty much everyone is terrible. Maybe there are 2 or 3 exceptions. If this movie had thrown in a few more funny lines, I would think it wasn’t taking itself seriously and give it a pass on a lot of this, but even knowing I was walking into b-movie hell, I was expecting at least more than 2 humorous lines. This movie also given a bigger budget could have been pretty rad in the hands of even a better studio like THE ASYLUM which isn’t saying much. 

Overall I can’t recommend even watching this movie, I have to give it a 2 out of 7, but I highly recommend buying the poster if you can find one. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF POLONIA BROTHERS ENTERTAINMENT AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

Please check out the link below by clicking on the picture. Because no one should die buttonless.