Lamberto Bava's Monster Shark surfaces!

[leoganzi]

http://www.mondo-digital.com/devilfish.html

[JMDiaz718]

So on the MSTK3 wikia site, it says the original cut of this movie, was edited much more coherently. Is that the cut on this release?

The US edited version was awful. The credits were all over the place. The movie title was shown multiple times. Scenes were cut away, sometimes in mid sentence, weird fade-out/fade-ins! This was goofed on a LOT in the MSTK3 episode.

The Mondo Digital review is pretty vague too. No clue as to what version is on the disc. They also state that the MSTK3 episode was bad, I disagree, it was freakin' hilarious from start to finish!

[Member-222782]

Originally Posted by JMDiaz718

So on the MSTK3 wikia site, it says the original cut of this movie, was edited much more coherently. Is that the cut on this release?

The US edited version was awful. The credits were all over the place. The movie title was shown multiple times. Scenes were cut away, sometimes in mid sentence, weird fade-out/fade-ins! This was goofed on a LOT in the MSTK3 episode.

The Mondo Digital review is pretty vague too. No clue as to what version is on the disc. They also state that the MSTK3 episode was bad, I disagree, it was freakin' hilarious from start to finish!

This is the kind of info I look for in reviews. Sadly they always leave me empty-handed. I guess we'll never know which cut we got unless an eagle-eyed fan comes forward and lets us know. Cutting and snipping was all too common on these movies so the question is, how much of the film was left intact?

[Evileye]

I can Confirm that this is the original Italian edit without the bizarre resequencing and fade edits.

[Lucy Ashton]

Originally Posted by Mahadeva

Bad, full of scanner noise, with disgusting copression.

Really? Of the three Italian CR discs I’ve viewed recently, I found this to be the best looking - The Last Hunter and Erotic Nights of the Living Dead both have this weird blocky/noisy digital phenomenon going on in their panning shots (more pronounced in Hunter, I’d say). I noticed no such issue in Monster Shark, but that said, I watched Hunter and Nights on a bigger, 4K set.

[JawsTDS]

Agreed, the scanner noise and compression on this disc is pretty bad, results in some noticeable blockiness at time. That being said, still superior to the DVD. Wonder if Bill utilizes dual-pass encoding for his releases?

Some screenshots in full 1080p are attached.

But yes, to confirm with others, this is the MONSTER SHARK cut, not the DEVILFISH cut. Much better version, in my opinion.

[splintersan]

Originally Posted by JawsTDS

Agreed, the scanner noise and compression on this disc is pretty bad, results in some noticeable blockiness at time. That being said, still superior to the DVD. Wonder if Bill utilizes dual-pass encoding for his releases?

Some screenshots in full 1080p are attached.

But yes, to confirm with others, this is the MONSTER SHARK cut, not the DEVILFISH cut. Much better version, in my opinion.

Thanks for the info!

[Mr. Thomsen]

Originally Posted by JawsTDS

But yes, to confirm with others, this is the MONSTER SHARK cut, not the DEVILFISH cut. Much better version, in my opinion.

Been looking around but could not find any info - what are the differences between the two cuts?

[The Great Owl]

People are disappearing off the coast of Florida. When a mutilated body is found next to the remains of a destroyed boat, a beautiful research scientist and an ocean equipment expert, played respectively by Valentine Monnier and Michael Sopkiw, both of whom previously starred in 2019: After the Fall of New York, discover that a massive tentacled shark-octopus hybrid, the result of genetic engineering, is at large in the waters. Their mission to destroy this monster is complicated when they themselves are hunted by mysterious parties intent on covering up the experiment. Everyone soon learns the hard way that the hungry creature does not distinguish between its friends and enemies.

Steven Spielberg's 1975 blockbuster, Jaws, spawned countless imitations, but Monster Shark, a 1984 Italian ripoff which was released on these shores as Devilfish, wins points for being one of the strangest endeavors. Director Lamberto Bava (Demons, Blastfighter) gives us a visual style that is notably more generic than that of his giallo films and supernatural horror pictures, but nonetheless adds just enough eye candy to keep this movie afloat. The story itself is somewhat of a snoozer, with an overload of sequences featuring people on boats looking at electronic tracking devices to find the whereabouts of the monster, but the outdoor scenes, which were filmed in Florida, have an odd charm to them.

Most of the offbeat fun of Monster Shark comes from picking familiar faces out of the Italian cast. Gianni Garko, who starred as the title character in the Sartana spaghetti western series, plays a sheriff. William Berger, who starred in a handful of spaghetti westerns, namely Face to Face and Keoma, and in the Mario Bava giallo, Five Dolls for an August Moon, appears as a professor. Dagmar Lassander, who shows up as one of the unfortunate female supporting characters, played in Mario Bava's Hatchet for the Honeymoon.

This one stands alongside the 1979 Roger Corman production, Up from the Depths, as a killer fish movie with poster art that is considerably more fascinating than the feature itself. If you, like me, have a love of all things shark-like, however, then you'll find some enjoyment here. Sopkiw and Monnier are likable leads, and Monnier's swimsuit is worth the price of admission in its own right.

This Code Red Blu-ray looks pretty great, with a filmic presentation that brings out the best of what this movie has to offer in terms of visuals. A commentary track featuring Sopkiw is quite engaging, despite a few gaps. This disc also features an intro with Sopkiw and the Banana Man himself.

[barsalou]

Sopkiw loves the Banana Man.

[sb5]

I think this is the least of the “Michael Sopkiw Quadrilogy”, but still pretty entertaining.