House Shark

House Shark is a 2017 American horror comedy film written and directed by Ron Bonk. The film stars Trey Harrison as Frank, a former cop who finds that a dangerous shark has invaded his home, and enlists the help of a former real estate agent named Abraham and a "house shark" expert named Zachary to confront the threat.

House Shark
Promotional release poster
Directed byRon Bonk
Produced byHoward Gromero
Jonathan Straiton
Tim Ritter
Written byRon Bonk
StarringTrey Harrison
Wes Reid
Michael Merchant
Music byEmmett Van Slyke[1]
Production
company
SRS Cinema
Release date
  • October 21, 2017 (2017-10-21) (Nightmares Film Festival)
Running time
112 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Cast
  • Trey Harrison as Frank[1]
  • Wes Reid as Abraham[1]
  • Michael Merchant as Zachary[1]
  • Collin Dean as Kid
  • Aiden Tetro as Kid
  • Nathan Bonk as Theo
  • Jennie Russo as Eleanor
  • Samantha Varga as Betsy
  • Brett Janeski as George
  • Melissa LaMartina as Lady Bird
  • Mary Snell as Secretary
  • Nathan Hine as Bodyguard
  • Edward Mastin as Ronald
  • John Krenrich as Ulysses
  • Sarah Noelle as Nancy
  • Stacy M. Underwood as Dolly
  • David Royal as John
  • Wayne W. Johnson as Darth Squanto

Production

Writer and director Ron Bonk stated that the film was conceived as a result of both a desire to make "a shark movie" and an incident in which Bonk experienced ice cracking on the roof of his home.[2] In an interview with PopMatters, he said "It was unseasonably cold even for mid-winter in Central NY, and I made a joke about it being zombies on my roof. And that was the movie title, Zombies on an Ice Roof, or something along those lines. Then I thought what if it was a zombie apocalypse but only inside people's homes... then thinking I didn’t want to do zombies, I thought what if it was a shark?"[2]

During pre-production for House Shark, Bonk launched a campaign on the crowdfunding website Indiegogo to alleviate production costs, but the campaign failed to reach the desired funding goal.[3] As a result, both the equipment used for the film and the size of the crew were limited.[3]

The special effects in House Shark were created by Marcus Koch and Matthew Ash.[1] Over the course of about three weeks, Koch constructed a 14-foot shark costume out of foam latex.[3][4] Several people performed as suit actors inside the shark costume, including Koch and Michael Merchant, the latter of whom also played the character Zachary in the film.[3] In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Bonk disclosed that the costume has since been disassembled.[4]

House Shark has been described by Bonk himself as "Jaws in a house", and one of the official posters for the film features the tagline "You're gonna need a bigger house", a reference to a line of dialogue from Jaws.[4][5] Bonk has stated that "It's hard to do a shark movie without paying homage to Jaws".[4] He has also referred to House Shark as being the "Blazing Saddles of shark movies" due to absurd elements present in the film.[4]

Release and reception

House Shark premiered at the Nightmares Film Festival in Columbus, Ohio on October 21, 2017, where it won the award for "Best Horror Comedy".[6][7] In early 2018, Bonk launched an Indiegogo campaign in order to distribute the film on Blu-ray, DVD, and VHS.[5][8] Unlike the campaign that was launched prior to the film's production, which failed to reach its funding goal, this second campaign hit its initial goal within 17 hours of its creation.[7]

Brad Miska of Bloody Disgusting described the film as "a bit Jaws and a bit Goonies and a whole lot of Troma-like madness."[1] Kyle Brunet of Boston Hassle wrote that "I could not recommend House Shark enough ... thinking back about House Shark with a shit-eating grin on my face, I keep trying to think about the last time I've had this much fun watching a movie."[9]

gollark: I mean, if not technically FTL, they're a thing people think of when they think "FTL travel".
gollark: "Not FTL" how? I mean, they get you from A to B faster than you could with sublight travel.
gollark: Huh? It has FTL. Which is apparently... possible...
gollark: And out of preorder.
gollark: I might get the ebook whenever it's available.

See also

References
  1. Miska, Brad (July 25, 2017). "'House Shark' is Basically 'Jaws' in a House?". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  2. Aloisio, Paul (February 3, 2016). "An Interview with Ron Bonk, Director of HOUSE SHARK! - PopHorror". PopMatters. Retrieved July 26, 2019.
  3. Brunet, Kyle (February 16, 2018). "BOSTON SCIFI INTERVIEW: 'House Shark' Director Ron Bonk". Boston Hassle. Retrieved July 26, 2019.
  4. Ritman, Alex (November 1, 2018). ""It's 'Jaws,' in a House": How Director Ron Bonk Made a Splash at AFM With 'House Shark'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 26, 2019.
  5. "House Shark - It's JAWS in a house!". Indiegogo. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  6. Wash, Tony (September 26, 2017). "Nightmares Film Festival FULL LINEUP!". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  7. Foywonder (February 13, 2018). "Ron Bonk's Positively Bonkers House Shark Ready to Swim Home". Dread Central. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  8. Sprague, Mike (February 27, 2018). "Ron Bonk's House Shark Gets Suitably Silly New Trailer and Poster". Dread Central. Retrieved July 26, 2019.
  9. Brunet, Kyle (February 17, 2018). "BOSTON SCIFI REVIEW: House Shark (2017) dir. Ron Bonk". Boston Hassle. Retrieved July 26, 2018.
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