Shark Huntress (2021) Review – An Absurd and Incompetent Disaster
Shark Huntress: Quick Verdict
The Verdict: A catastrophic failure of filmmaking that manages to be both hilariously inept and physically painful to watch. Shark Huntress fails on every conceivable level, from its nonsensical “activist vs shark” plot to its technical presentation that features audible audio hissing and visible camera operators. The script is a confused mess of environmental preaching and generic revenge tropes, delivered by a cast that appears either confused or entirely disinterested. With virtually zero shark action and a middle act that inexplicably focuses on diving certification lessons, the film offers no entertainment value beyond unintentional comedy. It is a 1 star disaster that serves as a masterclass in how not to produce a horror movie. Unless you are seeking an exercise in visual torture, this is one shark hunt you should skip entirely.
Details: Director: John Riggins | Cast: Katrina Grey, Dean Alexandrou, John Buster Flano, Russell Geoffrey Banks, Eve Cerda | Runtime: 1h 22m | Release Date: 2021
Best for: Viewers looking for a “how not to make a movie” guide and those who find joy in bottom-of-the-barrel technical incompetence.
Worth noting: Despite the title and marketing, the film features almost no interaction with a shark, instead focusing on low-budget island drama and “big plastic” conspiracies.
Where to Watch: Amazon🛒, Tubi, Vudu
Rating: 1/5 Stars
(Abysmal technical quality, horrific acting, and a confused, ridiculous script.)
Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we are going to be taking a look at the incredibly awful Shark Huntress (2021).
Highlights
The plot is utterly ridiculous!
You are going to probably think I am joking when I break down the plot of Shark Huntress; it is beyond silly. A woman, Sheila, loses touch with her mother for a couple of days. Determined to find her, she heads to the island where she was working. A devoted environmentalist, Sheila’s mother had been working on alternatives to one-time-use plastics. Something which, apparently, angered “big plastic,” making her disappearance a little suspicious.
“An environmentalist wants to kill a shark that was acting on instinct all while bringing down the plastic industry. Does this movie seem a little confused to anyone else?”
Upon arriving on the island, Sheila finds out that her mother has been killed by a rogue shark. Determined to get revenge on the shark and to bring down the plastics industry, Sheila heads out with her environmentalist pals, a spear gun, and a scuba kit.
Holy shit! What a terrible idea for a movie. Let me summarise that, once again, for you just for the records. An environmentalist wants to kill a shark that was acting on instinct all while bringing down the plastic industry. Does this movie seem a little confused to anyone else?
Who thought this was a good idea?
The plot of Shark Huntress has me asking a few questions. One being how the hell did this thing get commissioned? And another being why did nobody love the writers enough to tell them that they are shit at their jobs and need to quit? Somebody actually spent time writing this trash out on the back of a napkin and another person actually added their ideas and opinions to it. Not once did someone come along and say “What the hell is this shit?”.
If a person told you they had an idea for a shark movie where an environmentalist seeks revenge on a shark that killed her mother, you might be well within your rights to disown them as a friend. Nobody did that to writers Dante Delmare and Dustin Alexander III. Not a single person thought for one second to tell John Riggins that he shouldn’t direct this movie.
If you told me this was a movie made by actual anti-plastic industry activists, I would believe you. It plays out, very much, like the corny type of hypocritical crap made by narcissistic students that believe they are the only ones that can save the planet, all while engaging in the very actions that they are campaigning against.
Shark Huntress goes out of its way to preach about the dangers of one-time plastics, all while Sheila grabs the biggest spear gun that she can find so that she can give a shark a brand new breathing hole. It just feels so utterly ridiculous.
Just completely terrible
Every single thing that could possibly go wrong with movie making has gone wrong here. Terrible acting, awful dialogue, technical issues, everything. Shark Huntress is the definition of an awful film. It starts poor and just keeps on getting worse. Katrina Grey’s quickly abandoned, terrible American accent offers a quick hint of things to come. The camera operator’s reflection appearing in a character’s sunglasses also suggests we may be dealing with a careless production crew. But as time goes on, the issues just continue to mount.
“Shark Huntress is the definition of an awful film. Horrible audio hissing, technical issues, and a script that reads like the writer only just learned plastics are bad.”
Horrible audio hissing and low quality, overly compressed dialogue plague every scene. A script that reads like the writer only just learned that one-time plastics are a bad thing adds a touch of the remedial to genuinely serious issues. Terrible death scenes that play out as someone with a shark fin attached to their back squirting red dye into the water while they pull the unfortunate character around a bit provoke genuine groans. It’s all so awful; there isn’t a single thing to praise here.
This is a shark movie so we must, at the very least, have some action, right? Well that’s what you may think but the answer would be a resounding no. Nothing happens for the entire film. The cover hints at some epic battle between a woman and a shark. The closest we get to that is Sheila standing ankle-deep in the swell pointing her speargun into the open sea. It is terrible.
To emphasise this point, we actually get an extended part of the movie where Sheila gets her diving certification. I shit you not! We actually see her taking diving lessons. It is so silly.
Horrific acting
Right, let me get this out of the way first so I can pull out the flamethrower. Some people may not agree but I thought Eve Cerda was actually okay. Sure, her character is terribly written and they have her saying dumb things like “Thumbs down emoji” but she is okay. She feels fairly natural and does a good job making her lines feel, at least somewhat, organic.
Everyone else sucks a fat one. This is some of the worst acting I have ever actually seen. Katrina Grey is completely and utterly horrific. She has a thick accent that lends her a sort of Tommy Wiseau quality. Her line delivery is completely flat, she never emotes and seems completely bored. She can cry on cue pretty well, though.
John Flano, as Guru, is even worse. I have no clue what was going on with this guy; his delivery is so bizarre. He says every line in the same exact way and doesn’t seem to understand the script. I am fairly sure he must have very limited acting experience. A scene later in the movie where he is drunk is absolutely hilarious for how bad his acting is.
“Katrina Grey is completely horrific. Her line delivery is flat, she never emotes, and she seems completely bored. John Flano is even worse.”
Dean Alexandrou, as err Dean, and Russell Geoffrey Banks, as Luca are pretty bad, as well. I kind of got the feeling both were very bored, Banks in particular. I get the feeling he can probably act, he just didn’t want to. Maybe he realised how bad this movie was and decided to phone it in. Who can blame him?
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
The Good
- Eve Cerda: The only person in the entire production who appears to be putting in a modicum of effort, delivering her lines with a hint of organic energy.
- Brief Runtime: At just over 80 minutes, the ordeal is relatively short, though the lack of action makes it feel twice as long.
The Bad
- Technical Incompetence: From compressed audio hiss to visible reflections of the camera crew, the lack of basic polish is staggering.
- Horrific Acting: Katrina Grey and John Flano deliver performances so wooden and flat they border on the surreal.
- Zero Action: For a film titled Shark Huntress, there is almost no shark, no hunting, and certainly no excitement.
The Ugly: The “Drunken” Performance. A late-movie scene featuring John Flano that is so poorly acted it transitions from cringeworthy to genuinely hilarious.
Should You Watch Shark Huntress?
No. It is a 1 star catastrophe that fails to justify its own existence. The plot is nonsensical, the technical execution is amateurish, and the acting is some of the worst in modern horror history. Unless you are watching it for a laugh at its many failures, your time is far better spent on literally any other movie. Just skip it.
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