Deep Blood

Deep Blood (1989)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Joe D'Amato's next to last horror film is yet another Italian rip off of Jaws. After a group of friends take a blood pack, their friendship is put to the test when one of them is eaten by a shark. This is without question the worst of the Italian rips I've seen but I do have two more coming to me. The film has one suspenseful moment, the first attack, but after that everything is pretty dull. There's not a fake shark used throughout the film. Instead we get stock footage of a real shark that naturally never matches up to watch we're seeing in the other footage. Since no fake shark is being used, all of the attacks are rather silly.

Still together as adults, a group of childhood friends is brought back together when a series of strange attacks in their seaside town is thought to be done by a massive shark, but when the authorities fail to stop it, they realize a blood-oath taken as kids might be useful in stopping the bloodthirsty creature once and for all.

There wasn't a whole lot to this one. Among the film's better features is the rather enjoyable and unique setup that comes across differently from most killer shark efforts. Taking the idea of a childhood blood-oath triggered by stories from an Indian chief aware of such a creature existing in the area and then utilizing the returning-creature-in-the-present idea so that they can reunite to fend off the creature is a far more creative idea here for a killer shark film. That this turns the film into a workable imitation of the genre storyline involving the missing persons' cases that are thought to be resolved once the shark has been caught. Once it comes back around to involving that aspect in the story things pick up nicely where it generates some nice ideas where it's useful for bringing a different taste to the hunting scenes. As well, there's also the films' decent enough attempts at suspense before the shark attacks strike. Featuring lengthy scenes of the camera prowling through the water to signal the creatures' point-of-view before finally zeroing in on the victim floating on the surface or swimming unaware of the danger around them before the fateful attacks are carried out in bloody, graphic fashion. Since these are more realistic in that there's no decisive killing blow immediately after the creature attacks as the majority of these scenes feature a bit more carnage and interaction than usual, there's a nice bit of realism here even with the sharks' supernatural origins offered as a means of introducing where it came from. With an energetic finale that brings about some enjoyable action underwater with the sunken wreck being a fine source for combating the creature, this one does feature some good parts to it. However, there are some big problems with this one. Among the main issues here is that there are no original shark sequences placed throughout the film, relying almost exclusively on stock-footage shots of sharks for its time and then editing that around the actors which results in choppy, discordant attack scenes. Not only are the scenes obviously unconnected with no visible wounds or biting on the victim and then having everything obscured by a cloud of red and orange churning water with no shark visible since it's all taken from various sources. With no visible marks anywhere and no sequences, later on, showing the impact and damage the creature had on the victim to give us an idea of what's going on and how powerful it is, this one somewhat misses the boat when it comes to the main shark rather strongly. The other issue with the film is the relaxed and generally bland pacing in the first half that rarely brings about much excitement or interest. The scenes of the friends returning and reuniting have the potential to be a great reconnection factor but it completely misses out here when it brings up a series of plotlines to utilize them but does nothing with them. The interaction with the bullies is dropped after two brief sequences and the reluctant father angle goes nowhere since he brings him out immediately after a conversation rather than continually declining until forced to do so at the end of the film which makes more sense. These interactions are laden with conversations about their preppy lifestyle and childhood oath that are just boring and bland taking up time from the shark attacks which would've been far more enjoyable. These elements here hold this one back the most.

Rated R: Violence and Language.

There was a time, not even all that long ago if I remember correctly, that the notorious "Jaws: The Revenge" – the fourth installment in the world's most famous shark franchise, was listed here in the IMDb bottom 100. Admittedly this film isn't the elite of shark-movies but, trust me, it's a bona fide masterpiece in comparison to this shameless Italian piece of junk from the dirty hands of Joe d'Amato. "Deep Blood" – even the title is ridiculous – is a "Jaws" imitation that is at least 8-10 years overdue. The Italian shark movies from the early 80's are (for example "Great White" and "Devilfish") are also of questionable quality, but at least they're amusing and over-the-top cheesy! "Deep Blood" on that other hand is utterly boring and even too cheap to feature cheesy special effects. The only sharks that we get to see previously featured in National Graphic documentaries of which Joe d'Amato bought the stock footage! The wraparound story is also completely retarded. A bunch of young idiots living in a small and insignificant beach community take an oath to remain best friends for life and look after each other. Aw, how cute. Their buddy pact is immediately put to a severe test when one of them gets eaten by a shark. At least that's what you have to assume happened, because the actor simply vanishes in the water and the next shot just shows a puddle of red liquid instead. Either way, the rest of the losers decide to go shark hunting themselves, obviously against the will of local authorities. "Deep Blood" is a dreadfully tedious and overlong snoozer without any sort of memorable highlight… Except maybe if you count the boys' inability to estimate what quantity of dynamite is required to blow up a shark. There isn't even any gratuitous nudity or sleaze in this garbage. I'm really disappointed, Mr. d'Amato!

This is the worst italian movie ever, quite possibly the worst movie of all time! Joe D'Amato is of course no cinematic genius but many of his movies are interesting and watchable. Unfortunatly this is not one of them. Its cheesy and boring....waaaaay boring. If you want a movie to MST3k, get Troll 2, if you want a movie to put someone into a coma, get deep blood!

Almost all the scenes in this movie were filmed in Ocean Springs Ms and Biloxi Ms, but no credit is given. It's not the Mississippi River as it states. I live there and even though Katrina demolished our coast , I can still recognize all the places they filmed.