Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
A group of friends enjoying a weekend steal a couple of jetskis racing them out to sea, ending up in a horrific head-on collision. They struggle to find a way home with a badly injured friend while from the waters below predators lurk.
Shark Bait (2022) is a serviceable but largely formulaic survival horror entry. The plot follows a well-worn template of young adults making poor decisions that land them in a shark-infested situation, offering little beyond genre convention. The acting is mediocre, with characters feeling thinly written and performances failing to elevate the material. Cinematography is a mild bright spot — the ocean photography and underwater sequences are competently handled and create some genuine tension. Novelty is low; despite the jetski collision setup providing a slightly fresh inciting incident, the film quickly retreats to standard shark-attack beats. The ending is predictable and unsatisfying, wrapping up without meaningful surprise or emotional payoff.