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After what seems like an eternity of enduring bad CGI shark movies, it looks like upcoming fin-tastic horror film Beast of War has come to save the day, as writer/director Kiah Roache-Turner says the picture uses practical effects just like Steven Spielberg's Jaws.
“Every year there’s like ten shark movies that come out and every time I’m just looking at them going, it doesn’t look real… it just looks like a really well-rendered video game," said Roache-Turner in an interview with Bloody Disgusting. “To me, that’s not scary. The scary thing is that top shot in Jaws, where you see the shark coming to grab the guy’s leg, then he is trying to get back up on the boat, and it’s ripped off the boat. It’s real."
From that moment, the director and his team knew they needed to do what Spielberg had done 50 years prior in his genre-defining epic and build a shark. Using an Australian company called Formation Effects, the Beast of War team was able to use three sections of a shark and a giant puppet shark controlled by a stunt diver to create their beast. “Then we built a giant half-submarine with a fin on the back that swam around in the tank," added Roache-Turner.
Inspired by the sinking of the HMAS Armidale in 1942, Beast of War follows Australian soldiers left stranded in the ocean after their warship is sunk by Japanese fighter jets. However, the survivors realize they are not so lucky when the blood in the water attracts a formidable beast, plunging them into an all-out battle against a giant shark.
However, as well as influencing the movie's practical effects, Spielberg also changed Beast of War's cinematography entirely by accident. Roache-Turner had originally set out to “do Nosferatu with a fin” and make a "gritty, realistic-looking film." The director planned to shoot the movie in a tank in Malta, where Gladiator was filmed. But the tanks were subsequently taken by Jurassic World: Rebirth, which, funnily enough, was produced by Spielberg.
"So ironically, my idea I stole from Spielberg, and Spielberg came in and took my tank. I mean, it’s beautifully ironic," said the director. In the end, Beast of War was shot in an indoor tank in Australia, and the team decided to "lean" into the fog they had previously tried to avoid.
Beast of War hits select theaters on October 10. For more, check out our picks of the best shark movies, or keep up with upcoming horror movies heading your way.
