Blue Demon is a science fiction horror-comedy film directed by Daniel Grodnik. The film is about a group of scientists who have implanted computer chips into the brains of six Great White sharks, allowing them to control them. But when they are set free, they are forced to either capture, or kill them as they terrorize local beaches. The movie stars Deedee Pfeiffer, and Randall Batinkoff as the two head scientists, Marla, and Nathan Collins, who are preparing for a divorce, Danny Woodburn as the project's no-nonsense, and dwarf financer Lawrence Van Allen, Josh Hammond as Avery Dashlow, a computer technician employed by the scientists, and Jeff Fahey as General Remora, a general with a really bad haircut that is sent to check on the progress of the project.
The movie begins with a decently suspenseful, and well-directed sequence in which a group of college girls are attacked by the sharks while swimming in a lake. One of them ends up being killed, and the scene ends. This is the best scene in the movie, as it simply gets worse from here on out. The movie then cuts to Nathan, and Marla Collins who are going to Lawrence Van Allen's office to show him the progress of the project. They do their best to impress Van Allen, who is angered as a result of the death of the college girl, and the subsequent lawsuit it will cause. He is somewhat impressed by the demonstration of the sharks' abilities seen by security camera footage on a computer screen. He reminds them that General Remora, and other scientists will be visiting them in a few minutes, and they leave.
Next is a scene where Marla is attempting to feed the sharks in the enclosure. She accidentally drops her ring into the water, and falls in trying to grab it, and is knocked unconscious as a result. Nathan, and Avery eventually find her, and rescue her after she is almost eaten by the sharks. I don't expect a movie like this to have good camerawork, but the camerawork in this scene is simply ridiculous. The cinematography looks like something straight out of a news report, and the performances in the scene don't help much, either.
One month later, General Remora, and several other scientists have gathered in an underwater section of the lab. As they look out a window to see the sharks, they find that they are not there, and Nathan, Marla, Avery, and Van Allen head up to the surface to find that somebody has freed them. Next, a scene is shown in which two divers are fixing a fence that the sharks chewed through in order to escape into the lake earlier. The sharks then attack, and kill them, while, Katie, another maintenance worker, portrayed by Christine Lakin, watches in horror. Unlike the opening sequence, this scene has no suspense, or tension whatsoever, and utilizes several dizzying quick cuts in order to hide the fact that nothing is actually happening.
In the next scene, Nathan, Marla, Avery, Van Allen, and Remora have gathered in the lab, and it is discovered that a terrorist organization could've released the sharks, and that Nathan could be involved. Nathan is arrested, and taken to a police station. The film then cuts to a father and daughter fishing with another fisherman in a nearby lake. The father accidentally falls into the water, and is nearly eaten by one of the sharks, although manages to reach the dock. This scene is slightly better, and more suspenseful than the maintenance workers scene from earlier, although it still doesn't create enough tension to be scary, and a prosthetic shark fin can be seen being flipped over in one of the shots.
The film then shows Nathan being prosecuted at a police station. Marla then sneaks in, and kills the guard with a dart to the neck in one of the film's more comedic moments. The two then sneak off to warn the Coast Guard of the threat. Their attempts fail, however, as the Coast Guard hangs up on Nathan after he attempts to explain the situation. Meanwhile, Van Allen has discovered that Nathan, and Marla are on the run, and a manhunt is initiated for them. In the meantime, the sharks attack a couple on the lake, although the fisherman who was accompanying the father and daughter soon arrives, and kills one of the sharks with a harpoon gun. Now, for a shark movie, the effects early the film weren't that bad. They used prosthetic shark fins, and had real footage of sharks, and I always appreciate that when it comes to films like this. However, the producers must've decided that they had to use really crappy CGI sharks halfway through the movie, and this is where it starts. The scene where the one of the sharks is killed with a harpoon gun is absolutely atrocious, and doesn't look real in the slightest. But the effects only get worse...
Marla soon realizes that she can track the sharks using the computer chips, and the next few minutes of the movie is dedicated to the idiotic back, and forth between the bickering couple. They eventually track the sharks to a local beach, and Nathan attempts to warn people of the impending danger, although to no avail. The sharks kill several people, and Nathan is knocked unconscious while trying to get people out of the water. This scene would actually be okay for a shark attack scene if it weren't for the godawful performances from the extras. They look like they're just looking at a ship sailing in the distance, and don't look, or sound concerned at all. Meanwhile, Marla accidentally overloads the computer chips in the sharks' brains, seemingly killing all of them.
The next scene shows Nathan in a hospital bed, and wakes up to see an angel. Confused, he looks down to see that his legs are missing, causing him to scream in terror. The scene is then revealed to just be a dream, although Nathan is actually in a hospital bed. Dream scenes in movies are usually pretty unnecessary, especially in shark movies. And although the scene is very unnecessary, and only serves to lengthen the short 91-minute runtime, it does provide for a so-bad-its-good kind of laugh. Anyway, Nathan is in the hospital with only minor injuries, and is greeted by Marla, and Van Allen, who has called off the manhunt. Van Allen reveals that the alpha shark, Red Dog, is still alive, causing them to realize that he's being controlled by a different person.
Nathan, Marla, and Van Allen return to the lab, and confront Avery, whom they suspect is involved. It is soon revealed that Remora, and Avery are in cahoots on controlling Red Dog. In one of the poorest villain motivations ever, it is revealed that Remora is the head of the operation, and is doing it because he believes that America's security is too weak. As a result, in order to people more aware of terrorist dangers, he's going to place a bomb at the San Francisco Bridge using Red Dog as transportation. In the middle of his speech, Marla hilariously subdues him by throwing a life preserver over him. This somehow disables him from moving, and Nathan, and Marla begin chasing after Avery when he attempts to escape.
Nathan, and Marla follow Avery outside, and enter the back of his truck, where they discover carries the equipment used to control Red Dog. As Nathan goes outside to find Avery, Avery enters the truck, and begins driving off with Marla still inside. The next scene follows a poorly filmed, and boring so-called "car chase scene" that has Nathan attempting to catch up to Avery, despite the fact that his car is easily faster. Avery clumsily ends up crashing, and he's killed in the crash. Nathan finds Marla, and they manage to reprogram Red Dog to stray away from the CGI San Francisco Bridge. Seriously, they somehow didn't have the budget to travel to San Francisco, and get an establishing shot of the San Francisco Bridge.
Red Dog's lead direction leads him to the "default setting location": the lab. In the lab, Van Allen is holding Remora at gunpoint, and reporting him to national security. An alarm then sounds for no reason, and the camera zooms in on very poor, yet hysterical reaction shots of Van Allen, and Remora as Red Dog begins to approach the lab with the bomb in his mouth. Van Allen says one of the worst one-liners in movie history "Can you say sushi?!" before locking himself in a bomb shelter. Remora stands up smoking a cigar, and salutes before a white light meant to be an explosion engulfs the screen.
Sometime later, Nathan, and Marla are heading into court to discuss the whole incident. Marla soon reveals that she didn't file their divorce papers before they kiss awkwardly in front of Van Allen, and head inside. A voiceover of Marla explaining the incident is heard as the film ends.
Overall, the movie is obviously bad, but it is still enjoyable thanks to its light-hearted, and comedic nature. The acting is very cheesy, and cringey, but its enjoyable on a Room sort of level. The pacing is okay, and the effects are at first pretty good for a movie of this budget. At first. The first half of the movie relies on mainly prosthetic fins, and real shark footage. Unfortunately, after that, it delves into crappy CGI sharks that have no texture to them whatsoever. They even had to use a CGI San Francisco Bridge for some reason. However, the film is still enjoyable due to the aforementioned comedic nature. It knows what it is, and manages to slip in many really funny jokes as a result. However, the film's biggest flaw is that, despite the fact that it is technically a shark movie, not much of the movie focuses on the sharks, instead focusing on the annoying bickering between Nathan, and Marla, or the Remora-Avery conspiracy. Van Allen was definitely the best character in the movie, as he was funny, and kind of likeable despite his sarcasm, and serious nature. The best scene in the movie was the opening sequence, which was actually decently suspenseful, and well-directed. The film goes down from there, although still remains a perfectly tolerable shark flick that doesn't focus much on the shark. That is why I'm giving 3 out of 10 stars.
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