Will Shark Bait deliver or leave a bad taste for shark film fans?

It's the classic sharksploitation story of boys meets girls, they steal jet skis, they crash and they get surrounded by sharks.

Looking at the trailer for shark thriller Shark Bait that essentially seems to be the premise of the film directed by James Nunn - he was also assistant director on 47 Meters Down and 47 Meters Down: Uncaged.

Some friends who are enjoying a weekend steal a couple of jet skis, race them out to sea and end up in a horrific head-on collision. They struggle to find a way home with a badly injured friend while predators lurk below the water.

Sounds like they get all they deserve, the more squabbling and annoying they are the sooner we'll want them lining up as a hot lunch.

It's familiar territory for this shark film then - to quote Harry Meadows in Jaws, it’s happened before - just swapping out sinking boat or lifeboat for jet skis.

And, for some reason, that was its originally title, Jetski. One hopes that this crapski name was only a working title, as it was never going to get shark movie fans queuing in the digital aisles.

But then that has never stopped us watching the other numerous variations on it. And it doesn’t mean that we still can’t enjoy it, even if it offers nothing new. Let’s hope director Nunn breaks some of the bad habits of recent shark flicks.

Do we care about the protagonists? Unlikely, but we will all be caring how good, bad or ugly the shark's look and how well the humans are despatched and devoured.

It's a shark film, good, bad or indifferent of course we will all be watching it. Just do us a favour, leave your “it's not Jaws though is it?” baggage at the door.

Either way, it's got to be an improvement on the shark versus jet ski moment in Shark Attack 3: Megalodon.

One of the posters for Shark Bait doffs its fin to its own version of the classic Roger Kastel Jaws poster, which as we have already highlighted is a common play for most shark – or indeed nature attacks man – films since Jaws owned cinema screens in 1975. It’s imposing shadow and teeth remains long.

Shark Bait had a VOD/digital release in the US on Friday 13 May. If you have seen it, what did you think?

Words by Dean Newman

If you would like to write for The Daily Jaws, please visit our ‘work with us’ page

For all the latest Jaws, shark and shark movie news, follow The Daily Jaws on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.