FILM REVIEW: Atomic Shark Starring Rachele Brook Smith




I tweeted this out a couple weeks ago and I think it is time to back it up with a review I can only describe as TOO BIG FOR A TWEET.

I have been following Rachel's Brook Smith for the last few months on her Social Media after one night when I though to myself "Hey that girl from Glee's Britney performance with the sick abs who made me temporarily forget Lea Michele existed. She's probably listed on IMDB"

Side note only good things come from going down the IMDB rabbit hole so after a lot of cross checking tv sites to figure out the episode I managed to find Smith's IMDB and through that her social media and photos.

So obviously followed her on Twitter and heard she was starring in a Syfy movie. I love Syfy films they are a bit of a gamble sometimes they go full ham and are great but like the sharknado sequels some try to hard. Let's talk about Atomic Shark.

Atomic Shark is a 2016 made for TV Horror Film that premiered on the Syfy channel. It stars Rachele Brooke Smith, Jeff Fahey, David Faustino and Jessica Kemejuk.



When a lifeguard catches wind of a dangerous anomaly off the coast of San Diego, she commissions a band of unlikely heroes to assist her on a suicide mission to save the west coast from total destruction.

I wasn't sure what to expect from Atomic Shark there are basically two ways made for Syfy Channel films go cheesy and fun or overdone until the effect is spoiled. Thankfully Atomic Shark is one of the former it just works.

Shark stories like this tread a fine line, you have to balance fan service, horror and story or it falls apart. Like here with a female protagonist if she is involved in too much fan service we might stop taking her seriously as the person who is going to succeed (yup we're a little sexist like that). The film gets around that by having a somewhat 2D fellow gorgeous lifeguard to be the butt of all the jokes and fan service moments.


The storyline is a little weird it does that thing if you know Syfy films you've seen before, it basically skips the origin story of the monster and you just have to accept it. It is similar to the advice writers get around novels which is start the story as late as possible I think it works.


Let's talk about there isn't a huge amount of it actually and it certainly isn't the sort of thing to disturb your dreams. The special effects are passable and generally the camera work is good enough to cut away before your mind double checked what your eyes just saw. 


The plot itself moves on well and apart from a bit of a surprise in the final third which might have been down to some editing which might have left some character background out. What else is there to say there's a kickass lifeguard, drones (for some reason)?


This film is definitely a fun way to spend an evening with friends.


Check out the Trailer below.