Is Cruel Jaws a Hidden Treasure or Dumpster Fire?
The coastal town of Hampton Bay is threatened when a tiger shark starts chomping up their vacationers in the king of all Jaws rip-offs, Cruel Jaws. Days before the annual Regatta celebration, the townspeople are faced with financial ruin if something isn’t done about their newfound shark problem. If that wasn’t enough, the owners of the local amusement park have been subject to a hostile takeover from a prospective businessman looking to cash in on their prized property. It’s up to the sheriff, the park’s owner, and a shark expert to head out and destroy the killing fish before the summer economy is slashed and the park is left for the bulldozer.
Directed by Italy’s foremost expert on rip-off cinema, Bruno Mattei (under the name William Snyder), Cruel Jaws features a heap load of footage taken from Enzo Castellari’s The Last Shark, as well as snippets from the first two Jaws flicks, plus musical cues from none other than Star Wars.
Trashmen Rubbish Round Table
Trashmen Rubbish Round TableJamie
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to a Mattei film.
Like any Mattei film, the plot is a confusing mess. Something about a tiger shark that is somehow massive, spawned by the military, attacking beach goers while the mafia in town is trying to close in on some real estate which could effect SeaWorld? A Hulk Hogan look alike and his screaming teenage son and crippled daughter are the leads…eh, whatever. Just enjoy the hilarious over the top screaming, fake looking shark, and insane editing.
Travis
It’s amazing that he made a movie without one shot of original shark footage. Just cobbled it all together from various sources and basically not giving a shit.
Jamie
Cruel Jaws literally steals scenes from Jaws and Jaws 2 and even Jaws 3 but Jaws the Revenge was surprisingly left alone (even Mattei won’t go near poor Jaws the Revenge).
Jimbo
Mattei did use some Jaws 4 footage at the very end of the film, during the shipwreck scene. They did an optical zoom on the footage to try and mask it.
Travis
He also borrowed from Joe D’Amato’s Deep Blood.
Jamie
Mattei is no stranger to ripping off other Hollywood films like Aliens and Terminator and the Jaws series apparently is another one of his favorite films. Lines, shots, and even footage from the films are all present in Cruel Jaws. But even stranger, he doesn’t rip off the Jaws theme but goes after John Williams’ Star Wars score?!?
Travis
This has its slow parts where it’s basically just copying various Jaws films, but once the shark attacks kick in get ready to start dying of laughter.
Jamie
If you never saw a Mattei film, do you think this is one to start with? Personally this may be my favorite Mattei film that I have seen. It doesn’t have the dreariness of SS Girls or blandness of Violence in a Women’s Prison. Cruel Jaws falls more in the vein of Shocking Dark.
Jimbo
I still prefer Shocking Dark, but this one was a lot of fun.
Travis
I do like Shocking Dark a bit better, since it had some more action and at least original footage. I would not say start here for any Mattei novices. I’d honestly say start towards the beginning of his filmography. At least those were more pure exploitation (of the Nazi and Nun variety), which are more just trying to ride a genre wave. Get through the peak of his powers in the mid-80s (Women’s Prison Massacre, Rats), then devolve into pure lazy rip-offs (Shocking Dark), and finally ending on SOV exploitation which are somewhat entertaining but poor attempts at a lost era (The Jail: The Women’s Hell). All worth watching in their own ways.
Jamie
Mattei is nuts and just doesn’t give a flying fuck. And that is what draws me to his films. They don’t try to be anything but rip-offs but yet provide ample amounts of insanity that keeps me at least entertained.
Jimbo
Let’s talk a little about tone.
With some of these Italian directors you never know how exploitative they’re going to get. At one point in the movie, a dead body is found on the beach. Travis made a comment (when we viewed the film) that it looked just like a zombie from one of his earlier films and wouldn’t be surprised if it just got up. After all, why not? Then with all of the bikini clad women and bouncing bosoms, I think we all half expected to see a tit or two.
But then I realized that Mattei was trying to make a Jaws movie in tone as much as in story. I made a joke earlier about being happy to imagine it as part of the same Jaws universe. I’m confident Mattei very much had this in mind. So we may all laugh and have fun at Mattei’s expense, but he does come pretty close in many regards to making this feel like a legitimate Jaws movie.
Jamie
The tone was pretty close to a Jaws film aside from the usage of the F bomb (the Jaws films were PG / PG-13 and the only F bomb was in Jaws the Revenge). He kept the movie sort of light by not adding over the top gore and tits (although I personally would have enjoyed a more gruesome and sleazier version). He even has childish humor like the “villain” being bumped into the pool by a seal and making one of the protagonists a child.
Travis
I think, like a lot of Italian directors, they just kind of wing it sometimes and run with any random idea that pops into their heads. They need to stretch out threadbare rip-off concepts to feature length, so why not have wacky animal hijinks for no reason?
Jamie
In Italy they find AMERICA’S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS comedy gold.
Jimbo
My kids must be Italian.
Travis
That explains all the “ball” jokes.
Jamie
Exactly! How many times did someone get hit in the balls or had their gonads threatened in this film? Well over five or six times I am sure. Cruel Balls.
Hidden Treasure or Dumpster Fire
| Jamie: |  (3.5 / 5) |
| Jimbo: |  (3.0 / 5) |
| Travis: | (3.0 / 5) |
| Average: |  (3.2 / 5) |
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