‘Hot Spring Shark Attack’ Review: Tokusatsu, But Make it ‘Jaws’
It’s summer, and that could only mean one thing—lots and lots of killer sharks. Not in real life, of course (they rarely attack), but in the annals of indie, low-budget horror filmmaking. Ever since Jaws turned killer great whites into box office success, filmmakers have been desperate to recapture the toothy glory of Spielberg’s classic. Nothing has come close, and nothing ever will, so the best among them endeavor to try something a little different. Morihito Inoue’s Hot Spring Shark Attack is a Tokusatsu import whose earnest embrace of absurdity immediately has it swimming with a different pack altogether. It’s summer cheese, and you’d better get to it before it spoils.
Hot Spring Shark Attack does have some semblance of a plot. Sure, its practical mayhem isn’t quite as narratively driven as even something like Ebirah, Horror of the Deep during the original Toho era of Godzilla films, but there’s at least something contextualizing the relentless mayhem. Some greedy developers hope to revitalize a small Japanese town with a new, sky-high hot spring facility. Unbeknownst to them (though not for long), their efforts to access the geothermal pools have awoken a prehistoric race of killer sharks with no regard for the laws of physics.
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In its weakest moments, Hot Spring Shark Attack is every schlocky Syfy shark movie with the late Roger Corman’s name attached. Often, that cheese is endearing, though by the tenth time some poor sap is killed via a digital shark jumping out of nowhere, teeth at the ready, the gag runs a little dry, and Hot Spring Shark Attack only has one beat by which to renew interest; even more absurdity.
As a Tokusatsu, a term credited to special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya, Hot Spring Shark Attack blends cheap digital effects with effects of the passionate, gorgeous, almost-made-me-weep practical variety. They’re incredible, whether showcasing the killer sharks themselves or the high-tech submarine the ostensible heroes use to confront the mounting threat. It’s Kaiju cheese, literally, as the sharks grow bigger and deadlier throughout the admittedly brief, though welcome, 70-minute runtime. Come for a good time, not a long time, OK?
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Mileage, of course, is chiefly predicated on one’s own tolerance for such monster movie mayhem. Hot Spring Shark Attack is consciously unserious. Logic is deliberately absent—these sharks appear in tubs and pools without regard for, well, the ground. One of the biggest set pieces features a shirtless hunk impaling a killer shark like Aquaman while floating 10,000 leagues under the sea. It’s that kind of movie, and while the Tokusatsu subgenre remains popular in Japan, it’s decidedly less so outside that market. Hot Spring Shark Attack is getting a small domestic release, no doubt appealing to the most ardent genre fans. Sadly, though, widespread resonance is likely unachievable.
And that’s okay. I grew up on the earliest Japanese monster movies, so Hot Spring Shark Attack, while not matching those heights, is as earnest and funny an homage as I could have hoped for. This is filmmaking with passion, filmmaking with effervescent love for the genre landscape that allows it to even exist in the first place. It’s glorious, practical cheese that just so happens to feature killer sharks, lots of screaming victims, and some coastal hot springs. Hot Spring Shark Attack is Tokusatsu legacy horror, endearingly so, and if you think you can manage it, it’s worth staying afloat for. Now I just need to know where these ancient sharks plan to attack next.
Hot Spring Shark Attack comes to select theaters and VOD on July 11, 2025.
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Hot Spring Shark Attack
Summary
Hot Spring Shark Attack is a practically driven, balls-to-the-wall shark spectacular.
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