Totally harmless and pretty much forgettable. I had serious concerns during the opening (which lazily copycats the opening of JAWS for what has to be the billionth time) but I appreciated that soon after the filmmakers attempted to mash my two favourite sub-genres together: shark thriller and white trash redneck horror.
Unfortunately, David R. Ellis again fails to deliver on what is - on paper - a pretty fun concept. The violence isn't quite as subdued as I expected - there's lots of blood in the water - but it still feels too brief and impact-free. It's frankly impossible to accomplish anything impressive in either sub-genre without a certain sick, deranged sense of playfulness. The PG-13 kills that necessary edge. I really enjoyed the ludicrous reasoning behind why the sharks have taken up residence in the lake, but it's never exploited to its maximum blood-letting potential. It's a cool, demented idea grafted onto a fairly generic lite teen slasher film.
The actors playing the kids are pretty much straight out of Ellis' THE FINAL DESTINATION. Boring. I did like Chris Carmack as the lead *****y redneck bully but, again, the twisted potential of his character is squandered in the name of a teen-friendly rating. Donal Logue is also pretty fun, although when is he not? It's also hard to dislike Sinqua Walls' character, who makes a series of decisions so illogically dumb that it's hard not be fascinated by him.
The 3D is pretty much non-existent, except for a handul of underwater shots and a couple explosions. Once again, Ellis stumbles on the 3D (Why does this guy keep getting work, again?). He also can't stage a climactic jump scare to save his ****ing life.
Oh, and the post-credits stuff is so stunningly awful and laugh-free it's almost worth waiting for. It's basically a terrible YouTube video you wouldn't watch for more than 6 seconds at home.
In the past I might've given this a soft pass, but coming one year after PIRANHA 3D this movie just doesn't justify its existence.