Here is a shark attack movie with a period twist: it is set in 1946, and the reason the characters are intent on diving a section of river patrolled by an aggressive bull shark is that a van full of gold bullion lies at the bottom. This results in an unusual and not unpleasant mixture of aesthetics: gangsters in sharp suits and wide-brimmed hats and a ragtag band of salvage divers whom they hire to recover their ill-gotten gains.
The film also makes good use of its Australian setting, with attractive riverside locations which are again not typical in a shark movie. Hang on, you might think, what’s a shark doing in a river? But don’t worry, they’ve done their homework: this hungry fish is a bull shark, one of the most dangerous and aggressive sharks, and also one that is equally at home in fresh and salt water. (One of the most famous real-life shark attacks of all, at Matawan Creek in 1916, was over a mile upriver from the ocean.) So there’s a new nightmare, just when you thought it was safe to go back to the riverbank.
