Bait 3D
Starring: Xavier Samuel, Sharni Vinson, Julian McMahon, Lincoln Lewis, Alex Russell
Director: Kimble Rendall
Reviewed by Danielle Muir

[rating: 2.5/5]

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the supermarket….  There.  Now I have that out of my system.

Bait 3D is probably the movie you watched the trailer for and either dismissed immediately, or anticipated for deliciously B-movie vibe.  Beware those with standards and intellect  – lose them before you buy the ticket.  Go with friends.  Have a few shots.  Be rowdy.  Enjoy the underwater gorefest.

A bunch of unlucky civilians who just happened to need milk and bread at the wrong time become trapped in their local Oceania Mart, after a rogue tsunami wipes out the city.  The ones who haven’t been decapitated or otherwise dismembered climb on top of the supermarket shelves to escape the rising water – but then realise one thing.  “There’s a twelve foot great white shark in here.”  Thanks, Xavier Samuel, your specificity is second to none.  The surviving group then battle the rising water, hungry hungry sharks and of course, each other, in order to make it out of their submerged tomb intact.

This is a trashy movie.  There’s gratuitous, gratuitous gore.  I’m talking a mangled face, arm or other munched on limb floating by about every 5 minutes.  Some of the dialogue is shockingly hilarious, the characters infuriating (Phoebe Tonkin’s princess gets a dishonourable mention) and the accents can’t decide whether they are Australian or American.  The CGI shark is…blatantly CGI, therefore most of the death scenes involve copious amounts of blood, thrashing water, and someone letting out a bit of a yelp.  But that’s ok because again, the B-movie vibe allows this.

The death scenes themselves become quite standard, i.e. some hapless soul abruptly being sucked underwater, however a couple are genuinely tragic.  The rest die with such extreme violence that you forget the character whose life was just devoured, but fans of this style will have a good laugh and appreciate the ridiculousness and gore.  Oh and yes, there are a couple of love stories thrown in there for good measure.  Just thought I’d mention that to cut through the endless variations on the word gore.

Props, however, for the set design.  It appears they have reconstructed everything without the use of green screen, creating an ominous and endangering environment that itself could take the lives of the drenched bunch before Jaws has time for desert (damn you Thomas Edison).  The way the characters interact with the environment seems practical and realistic – that’s mercifully where the realism tends to end though.

I know I’ve said mostly positives, but the two-and-a-half stars come from the fact that it has no real substance.  Mostly just shock value, familiar faces, and a few good laughs at the ridiculousness.  Entertaining?  Yes.  But entertaining will only get you so far.