12 Days of Terror

This movie is amazing, I caught it flipping trough channels and I had to keep watching. I did some googling and the movie is not 100% accurate in who was doing what at the time of the attacks, but it sure is close enough. Surprisingly the most dramatic scenes are also very accurate historically, and I guess it's because of the book.

That's what makes it so great, you get a feeling of realism that's missing in a lot of shark movies. They use a lot tricks to create suspense used in Jaws, and they still work great here. You can sometimes see where costs where cut, but it happens in scenes that don't affect the story too much.

If you start watching and don't like it, you owe it to yourself to watch it to the end, because it just gets better and better. A great story, and a good example of a movie based on acting instead of special effects.

12 Days of Terror is a dramatization of real events during the 1916 oddity where a shark cruises the NJ shores and tributaries for 12 days apparently looking for people to munch on. Some say that the concept of Jaws was taken from this true story. Many of the same Jaws characters are there, the business people and authorities who won't listen because money is involved, the few who understand the seriousness of the problem, and the 'main course' public who rely on the authorities to keep them safe from something they don't understand. Some discussion over just how many sharks were involved was glossed over since humans are a large meal and sharks don't need to eat every day because of a slower metabolism. Good acting, relatively good camera work, interesting scenery, and a passable script.

The movie is factually based, if you read the actual events that took place in Jersey in July 1916 you will see that the majority of the film stays true to events that happened.

As far as Alex being the one that stops the shark eventually, I think that is a little off-story, he is present and witness to all the attacks and uses that to tell the story in much the same way that the character of Rose tells the story of Titanic, yet she was never an actual passenger on the ship in real life.

Having read the events thoroughly, I then enjoyed the film immensely, it has no over the top CGI and relies heavily on the acting and storytelling. I can certainly see where Peter Benchley may have been inspired to write the novel Jaws.

Please don't go into this thinking that the film is a Jaws ripoff, it's not, it's the prequel!

I saw this movie and wishing it is on DVD. I have seen all the shark movies that are made except for Open Water and Shark Attack I. I want to see Open Water but this movie is one of those that is damned accurate to the book as well as well to the events of what happened. Dr. Fernicola, thank you for writing this book and providing the movie to go with it. It was about time to see this movie become made. The question of how they managed to make the shark for this one. It is one that rivals Red Water. I am very pleased with this movie; and I used to read a lot of books about shark attacks and had a morbid interest for what happens to people that were attacked by a shark. This movie adds more of a sting to JAWS in the book form. I am reading both books at the same time. This TV movie was one that I will remember for many years to come.

This film is based on fact and actually has a very jaws feel about it, It's a shame it was made a TV movie as this could've been a whole lot better and I think it would've been successful to, Saying that it's very watchable and it gives you a very good understanding of where the ideas for Jaws come from