Writer-director Kiah Roache-Turner's second creature-feature after Sting, ntbcw The Beast of War (1988), aka The Beast, is inspired by actual events: the sinking of the HMAS Armidale on 1 December 1942.
However, story is fictional.
Mark Coles Smith - Leo
Joel Nankervis - Will
Sam Delich - Des
Maximillian Johnson - Stan
Lee Tiger Halley - Teddy
Sam Parsonson - Thompson
Tristan McKinnon - Bobby
Aswan Reid - Archie
Summary
Australia 1942.
When their boat is sunk by Japanese forces somewhere in the Timor Sea, a group of young soldiers must put personal differences aside and resist the advances of a 20-foot Great White Shark.
Blood and movement
Once we've dispensed with the formalities of boot camp training (like any traditional war movie), titular beast (mockingly nicknamed 'Shazza') is revealed in phenomenal fashion, and undoubtedly the best practical example since Jaws.
No CG here boys and girls, just good old-fashioned animatronics and puppetry.
Good on ya Formation Effects.
A really nice touch is a soldier jamming a broken air raid siren into the shark's fin, giving off shrieks of unique distortion.
Apart from spilling a generous amount of gore, Roache-Turner also 'adds' the equivalent of Herbie Robinson from Quint's USS Indianapolis monologue.
"I reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up, down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist."
Yeah, a torso floats to the surface.
With the rest eaten, shot or blown up, only Leo, Will and Des remain during the final scenes.
Awaiting help, a Japanese soldier standing on his capsized boat pretends to surrender by tossing his sword into the sea. But instead, bastard engages with Leo and Will in hand-to-hand combat.
Des pulls an explosive from under the debris and kills himself and enemy.
Leaving Will to fix the motorboat, Leo (with final grenade in hand), pulls the pin and shoves bomb deep inside its gaping maw, losing an arm in the process.
Shortly after boom time, Leo scrambles aboard and survivors drive toward the sunset.
Did they really rip off Jaws 3?
Apparently so.
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