If a film was successful in America, you can bet your bottom Lira that there’s at least one cheap Italian rip-off of it, and it would seem that Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” is one of the favourites of Italian rip-off directors, as there’s a lot of films that ‘take influence’ from it. To be honest, this is my first taste of Spaghetti-style Jaws, and I liked it quite a lot; as even though this film is derivative and silly, it’s also a whole lot of fun as not only do we get to spot all the things that director Enzo G. Castellari has lifted wholesale from the superior seventies film, we also get to have a laugh at the sheer ineptness of the production – that gigantic rubber shark being a particular highlight! The plot will be familiar to anyone who’s seen Jaws (which should be everyone who’s seen this), and we start out following the fortunes of a popular tourist beach. Those fortunes take a downturn, however, when a giant Great White decides to move into the area, and the people are forced to stay out the water (which proves to be too much for some!). We then follow several attempts to rid the water of the menace.

Despite obviously being a rip-off, Castellari’s film is surprisingly serious; and it becomes obvious on several occasions that this film isn’t meant to be a joke, despite the big rubber shark. Scenes that describe a young girl who’s lost her leg to the rubber mammoth, as well as the ending prove this; and to me, this makes the film even more fun. I don’t want to sound like I’m having a laugh at the director, however, as he’s done a surprisingly good job. Aside from having the balls to openly rip off a big blockbuster, Castellari also manages to do a really good job with the underwater scenes, and despite the silly looking monster; many of the attack sequences are well executed and surprisingly suspenseful. Scenes that involve a broken harbour and a helicopter stick out the most. Steven Spielberg made his central monster more frightening by not using it too often; and that is the case here also, although I expect that here the shark is under-used out of embarrassment rather then tension-building. Overall, this is a much better movie than it looks on paper; the film is lots of fun and is many times better than all of the official “Jaws” sequels.