Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Shark Lake’

Written by Scott Edwards

One of the things that you find out as you grow up is that the easiest answer is usually the right one, but not all of the time. As you see that all signs point to one solution, there might be something that you are missing. No matter how clouded your judgment might be, it is not a bad idea to keep your mind open to alternative answers, especially when you were not the person to see exactly what set up the problem. Shark Lake does a great job at showing this, even when everyone is sure that they have the answer they are looking for.

After being called down to the lake to write up her report on a supposed bear attack, Officer Meredith Hendricks has a strange feeling about what is going on. But she is not sure that this attack could be further from the truth until she meets Doctor Peter Mayes when out to dinner with her daughter. As Peter points out, bear attacks are few and far between in North America and he believes that there is something else in the lake that has decided to show itself. While nobody knows what to expect, Peter goes diving in the depths of Lake Tahoe and finds the disturbing answer to his own question as to what is really behind the attack as he finds the missing limb from the latest victim hidden in the submerged rocks.

The lake has a shark problem and with his research pointing to a bull shark that can adapt to fresh water, Peter makes his report to the police, but the Chief is not willing to listen to the facts. As the news reports that the bear from the attack has been captured, a parasailer loses her leg to the underwater attacker. Seeing that his assumptions were wrong, the Chief calls in the services of famed fisherman Garreth Ross to capture the shark to make the lake safe again, but when his crew sees that their threat is three times worse than they expected, he is forced to change his hunting method. Meredith and Peter need to find a way to stop the shark problem before all of the liquored-up fishermen in the area take to the water and become the shark family’s next meal, but their plan is derailed when Meredith finds out that her daughter is missing. 

This movie takes a couple twists and turns but it seems few characters in this film can wrap their heads around the fact that there is a shark in Lake Tahoe. As Meredith is worried about what could happen to any and all of the visitors as they start to pile in by the boatloads, she is the only person of authority that believes there is an issue. Being dismissed several times, her hunch of an alternate killer in the lake is correct and when she finds out that her ex-husband is involved in the problem, she takes to what she knows to find out why it happened. While the other storyline in the movie focuses on the love between separated parents and their daughter, which was very good, I really just liked the blood in the water and could not wait for another person to be claimed by the clan of sharks that did not discriminate between victims while waiting for their next meal. Stay Scared.

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