Sharknado Frenzy Engulfs Social Media – What is it About Bad Shark Horror Movies?

sharknadoposterYou probably didn’t see “Sharknado,”  a made-for-cable movie on the SyFy channel last night.  I didn’t either and we should probably consider ourselves fortunate to have missed it. Or maybe not.  It has been hard to ignore, however, as a “Sharknado” frenzy erupted on social media, particularly Twitter.   According to Alexander Abad-Santos writing in Atlantic Wire, the number of mentions the movie received on Twitter rivaled those of the presidential debates last year.  According to Amar Toor, writing in the Verge blog, “At its peak, the film was generating more than 5,000 tweets per minute,….undoubtedly impressive for a low-budget cable movie about airborne killer sharks.”  It was also huge on Google Trends, rocketing to the #2 spot.  The movie itself apparently only attracted between 1 and 2 million viewers.  Nevertheless, it made quite a splash on the internet.

‘Sharknado’ Was the Only Thing Worth Talking About Last Night

So, what is “Sharknado” about?  The title apparently summarizes the entire plot. It is a movie about a huge tornado that sucks sharks out of the ocean — and then hurls them out of the sky and onto the sidewalks of Los Angeles.  It stars Tara Reid and Ian Ziering and may indeed rank way up in the “so bad, it is good” category of wretched “B” movies.

Sharknado (2013) Trailer

But what sets  “Sharknado” apart from so many other badly made shark horror movies that have spawned recently in the fetid pools of cable television programming?  How is it so much better or worse than Dinoshark, Sharktopus, Mega Shark Vs. Crocosaurus , Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus, Swamp Shark, Snow Shark, Sand Sharks, 2 Headed Shark Attack and on, and on and on?

Having not seen any of these movies, I have no answer, though it does appear that “Sharknado” has crossed a threshold of campy badness/goodness that these other finned pretenders can only dream of.

Allahpundit of the Hot Air blog comments: After 100 years of filmmaking, we’ve reached the summit. And sincerely, Syfy deserves credit for it. Anyone can make an unwatchably stupid, terrible movie; making a stupid, terrible movie that’s compulsively watchable is sufficiently difficult that I’d say it qualifies as art. This is the apotheosis of schlock. Recognize the divine when you’re in its presence.

 

Comments

Sharknado Frenzy Engulfs Social Media – What is it About Bad Shark Horror Movies? — 4 Comments

  1. I haven’t got a TV but I felt very much at ease with not seeing it thanks to our Control Geek friend John Huntington. He posted the trailer on Facebook; the trailer included the line “We’re gonna need a bigger helicopter!” and I just knew that that had to be the fins-down best line in the entire flick. Facebook is so helpful.

  2. I only get over the air TV now, thankfully!

    They (reporters) talked about it on the NBC and the ABC morning shows yesterday

    And because of people ‘liking’ it and tweeting about this stupid movie, there is rumor of a part #2 or a sequel..

    Inside ‘Sharknado’

    Inventing ‘Sharknado’: Inside Syfy’s Booming B-Movie Factory

    Last night, on the Syfy channel’s made-for-TV movie Sharknado, Ian Ziering killed an airborne shark with a chain saw. Erik Estrada microwaved a tiny chupacabra in last year’s Chupacabra vs. the Alamo. And in the 2011 non-hit Mega Python vs. Gatoroid, 1980s pop star Tiffany was eaten by an enormous alligator as Debbie Gibson watched, scream-crying, from a helicopter that had come to save her. This is the Syfy B-movie monster machine. It is cheap, it is stupid, and it is enormously successful. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-07-12/inventing-sharknado-inside-syfys-booming-b-movie-factory

  3. I am crowd-sourcing for a made-for-TV blockbuster. Resumé: punters on an educational day trip on a pirate boat replica. Crew turns out to be real pirates. Ship caught in a giant waterspout that dumps hundreds of great white sharks on deck. All pirates and some dudes get eaten. Remainder get saved in extremis by arrival of a UFO that takes them off the pirate boat. But are those aliens friendly or merely hungry?