Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		1.5

Deep Blood Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 4, 2021

The long and short of Deep Blood is that, as many will no doubt either already know or quickly realize if they simply look at the cover image or summaries of the film, it was a Grade Z knock off of Jaws. The first curious thing about that state of affairs is that Jaws came out in 1975, and Deep Blood didn’t appear until 1989 or 1990 (depending on differing sources), which would seem to be an inordinate amount of time for a more or less carbon copy to show up. Deep Blood was so late to the “killer shark” game that both Jaws 2 (1978) and even the late, not very lamented Jaws 3D (1983) had already come and gone and probably been largely forgotten. Despite the obviously derivative qualities of just about every frame of Deep Blood, there are some passing hilarities to be found, one of which occurs in the film’s very opening scene. Under the opening credits, four youngish boys are seen enjoying a weenie roast on a beach, a beach which frankly looks like it abuts a river rather than the ocean, which might make any threat of sharks a little less prevalent. But then after the credits end, out of nowhere a towering guy appears and starts launching into a story about ancient tribes and a long ago water demon called a Wakan. If his headband and shawl aren't enough to identify him, rest assured that the IMDb has this character helpfully listed as “Indian”, but here’s the absolutely guffaw inducing part: “Indian” is played by an actor named Van Jensens, whose surname may indicate he has next to no Native American ancestry, and who in fact looks like a imposing Scandinavian fellow, albeit with maybe just a hint of a Bill Murray vibe (see screenshot 5).

"Indian" is tasked with providing not just some quick backstory about supposed legends and a marauding underwater beast, he also tells the boys that they've been summoned to the beach expressly to meet him and to enter into a blood pact together, as well as to take possession of a priceless artifact that "Indian" bestows upon them and which he suggests may provide aid to them at some later, unspecified, date. Now here's another moment of hilarity: "Indian" takes off, and the quartet of boys simply digs a shallow hole in the beach (right next to the water) to bury the carving "Indian" has given them. Evidently there are no scavengers in the area, and tides never wash away any grains of sand, because when some of the boys return to the site later as young men, the item is still there, right where they left it.

That mention of the boys as young men details the segue this film makes, and again kind of hilariously it attempts to introduce the now grown characters with vignettes that document everything from one of them being a nascent PGA star to another being an Air Force mechanic. It's all kind of pointless, really, since any of the four guys is pretty much interchangeable, though Ben (Keith Kelsch) is given the benefit of having parents who play quite a bit into the story. Here again the film is kind of at least subliminally laughable since real life married couple Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall play the parents, and as anyone who recognizes their names and will know, the two are rather dark haired and what some casting directors might euphemistically call "ethnic" looking, while Kelsch is another strapping blonde surfer dude looking type who one assumes must have been left on the parents' doorsteps as a foundling.

Without giving too much away, suffice it to say that another seaside village somewhat reminiscent (right) of Amity is terrorized by a vicious shark, and once again, the local authorities aren't prone to believe there's any danger. One of the quartet of boys meets his fate at the teeth of the beast, and that spurs the other three into acting on that long ago blood pact, including retrieving the priceless artifact, which is of course exactly where they left it years earlier.

There are various other supposed "personal" dramas that play into the film, and there are some occasional stabs at humor, mostly with regard to the constantly perspiring sheriff (Tody Bernard) and his underling. But the film simply didn't have the budget to really go all out on "shark effects", and instead relies on (again hilariously) mismatched stock footage. Even the climax was evidently ripped off from another film, which itself had ripped off at least the idea from, yep, you guessed it, Jaws.

Deep Blood Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Deep Blood is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. The back cover of this release states this was "scanned in 2K from the original negative for the first time ever", though that may raise the question of the aspect ratio of this version, since a 1989 or 1990 film probably wouldn't have been exhibited theatrically in or near Academy ratio. At any rate, the presentation here is really surprisingly good a lot of the time, with an understanding that the credits can look a little rough, and some of the stock footage can look more than a little rough. The palette is nicely suffused, and detail levels are typically very good to excellent. There are a few blemishes that dot the premises, but for a low budget film that was probably never curated very carefully, things are in surprisingly good shape from a damage perspective. Grain has a slightly yellowish quality a lot of the time, which may be visible in some of the screenshots accompanying this review.

Deep Blood Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Deep Blood features DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono tracks in either English or Italian. From score and effects perspectives, the tracks are largely interchangeable, but the dialogue on the Italian version doesn't sound quite as hot as the English version, and further suffers from the kind of boxy, reverberant sound that can be typical of Italian dubs. The English language version provides good clarity and reasonable dynamic range, though I'm not sure the synth laden score by Carlo Maria Cordio really helps things very much, though at least it doesn't overtly rip off John Williams. Optional English subtitles are available.

Deep Blood Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (HD; 3:29)

Deep Blood Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A lot of "killer shark" movies that appeared in the wake (sorry) of Jaws are most definitely in the "so bad they're good" category, and some more jaded types may feel that Deep Blood falls squarely in that particular subgenre. Personally, so much of this film is so ham handed that I just kind of felt it was flat out bad, without any qualifiers necessary, though I will forever love it in my own way for providing me with the inimitable sight of Van Jensens as "Indian". Technical merits are generally solid for those considering a purchase.