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Cast

Xavier Samuel
as Josh

Sharni Vinson
as Tina

Julian McMahon
as Doyle

Phoebe Tonkin
as Jaime

Alexander Russell
as Ryan

Alice Parkinson
as Naomi

Alex Russell
as Ryan

Cariba Heine
as Heather

Richard Brancatisano
as Rory

Chris Betts
as Lockie

Simon Edds
as Lifeguard

Michael Deakin
as TV Reporter

Dan Wylie
as Kirby

Damien Garvey
as Collins

Lincoln Lewis
as Kyle

Adrian Pang
as Jessup

Yuwu Qi
as Steven

Martin Sacks
as Todd

Rhiannon Dannielle Pettett
as Assistant Manager

Skye Fellman
as Young Girl

Nicholas McCallum
as Oceania Store Owner

Brett Kelly (I)

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Critic Reviews for Bait

Audience Reviews for Bait

• Oct 05, 2018

  I guess you could say I'm running the gamut here in this horror fest. We've already had possession movies, ghost movies, survival movies and now we come to the shark movie. I may have mentioned this in a review before or not, but I'm not exactly the best swimmer. In fact, I actually can't swim at all. And this is considering the fact that I went to a private school that had a pool and I took some swimming classes for a year. Actually, and this is a secret, so don't tell anybody but the entire internet, I almost drowned once when I was a kid. I live on a tropical island and I rarely go to the beach. And when I do go to the beach, I don't go in past the shallow end. I guess the almost drowning seemed to have some sort of effect on me. That's why if I was to be the main character of a shark horror movie, the movie would just be me watching videos on YouTube while some news report plays in the background about some shark attacks. In all seriousness though, the shark subgenre is quite populated to say the least and, unless it's a movie made by The Asylum (makers of the "classic" Sharknado franchise and other assorted shark movies), once you see a shark movie, you've seen them all. I mean, realistically speaking, you can't actually do much with a shark movie. Unless, again, like The Asylum, you throw all logic and actual physics out the window and you do something completely over-the-top and ridiculous. If you're making a straightforward shark movie, however, it's gonna be very difficult to stand out. Particularly when, to some, the best shark movie (Jaws, duh) has already been made. Essentially, much like The Exorcist has done for possession movies, you're just trying to compete with the top dog, as it were. I greatly enjoyed Jaws, even if I wouldn't say it was great, and (to me) it is still the best movie in its subgenre. And, realistically speaking, if you were expecting this to come close to that, then you were just being delusional. Having said all of that, for what I was expecting (a cheap, low-budget horror movie), I came away pleasantly surprised by this movie. I mean, that's not to say that I would say that this is a good movie. I don't feel it comes close to that, but this is a perfectly decent shark movie all things considered. It's not gonna change the world or revolutionize horror, but it does provide precisely what most people want when they go into this movie. And that is some shark gore. We definitely get some good, practical gore from this movie. Yet, at the same time, it almost feels as if the movie is fighting with itself on this regard. What I mean by that is that this feels like a movie that probably wasn't meant to have any gore, but they just added it in because they had to. And, I don't know, I could feel that struggle when watching some of these gorier scenes. Another issue is, to me, the CGI. What I mean by this is that there were three animatronic sharks used while filming and, yet, for its majority, the film made use of CGI. I normally wouldn't have a problem with this, but there's such a major disparity in terms of the CG and how the animatronics look that it's a little bit jarring to jump back and forth between the two. And I know that the budget, seemingly, negated the use of the animatronics for the entirety of filming, but there's still a disconnect between the CG and the animatronic sharks. The plot is simple, a group of characters, some in the store itself and others in the parking garage when a tsunami hits. Both places are, mostly, flooded as the characters are able to stand on shelves and/or cars. Regardless, they come to find out that there's two great white sharks (one in the parking garage and one in the store) in the water and, essentially, that's the entire movie. It's about these people finding a way to survive this and to get out of the supermarket in order to be rescued. There's nothing that you really haven't seen anywhere before in this movie, but I had absolutely no problem with anything that I saw. There's even some funny moments with Kyle and his girlfriend. Other than that, there's minimal character work. Yet, in spite of that, most of these people are relatively likable. Which, quite frankly, surprised the hell out of me. I say this because, more often than not, people in these types of movies act like nothing more than this film's title. They're just bait for the villain, whoever (or whatever) it may be, to murder. I don't wanna say that you come to care about these people, but one is more invested in their plight than one would reasonably expect. Having said that, there's really not that much to this movie in the long run. It's just a regular shark movie and it doesn't really provide anything new or that interesting. Nobody is ever gonna think that this is a better movie than Jaws. I mean, I'm certain that there's SOMEONE out there that thinks this, but they're just weird people that probably voted for Trump. The acting is inconsistent. It's not bad, it's not good, but it's somewhere in between. Though, the guy who plays Kirby is just awful. He's entertaining in how awful he is, but he's still just awful. I don't know if it's because this guy, Dan Wylie, is really that bad or if he was told to ham it up in the worst way possible, but he felt at odds with the rest of the cast. I don't wanna say the rest of the cast took it 'seriously', because while it's not as comedic as, say, Shaun of the Dead, this movie obviously doesn't take itself too seriously nor does it have delusions of grandeur. The point is that the rest of the cast doesn't ham it up as much as this guy does, so I don't know why, if this was the direction he was given, why he'd be the only one to do this. This is what leads me to believe that he was just an awful actor. I don't know, it is what it is. I don't know what else you want me to say about this movie. I feel like I've covered everything and I'm tired. So this is where it ends. There's obviously nothing that's good about this movie. It doesn't stand out in any way, but I think it is a decent B-tier shark movie. Nothing that you need to go out of your way to see, but a movie that's perfectly watchable and it won't make you pull your hair out. That's about the best thing I can say about this.
  Jesse O Super Reviewer
• Oct 30, 2015

  You know I kind of feel bad for Jaws. I mean sure it brought a lot of this on itself with the terrible sequels, but even so, do you think there's people who have never seen Jaws and think that this is all Shark-based Creature Features have to offer? Chock full of tropes I detest like unnecessary fly-at-your-face-for-3D-you-aren't-using-ery, Australians who aren't allowed to speak in an Australian accent for some bloody reason, and woeful CG. Bait then bizarrely folows up that bad (like, seriously bad) CG with some actually surprisingly decent practical effects and even a handful of live-action, so that took it a couple of steps back in the right direction. It's still bad, but I guess... Less bad. Slightly.
  

  Gimly M Super Reviewer
• Oct 14, 2012

  Jeez, I hadn't seen something this bad in a while... and can't quite remember which twat of my friends recomended me this to hurt him somehow as payback :D These characters are beyond belief. Wow, what a bunch of... I dunno what to call them really. Their interactions and personal dramas are so awful and with such bloody bad dialogues, I can't quite conceive any real motivations going on. The CGI is atrocious but at least it's gory enough to be mildly entertaining. The whole concept even on itself is so far-fatched, I honestly believed at first that this could be a goofy comedy (which would've worked much much better). A tsunami hits a coastal city in Australia, those morons get stuck on a shopping mall and white sharks get in there to hunt them (I guess). As these things go, conflicts among such exotic cast of characters occurr, but you can witness more bitch slapness on a kindergarten than here. Then, one moron does some moronic thing to get picked of, one at a time, then it ends. Yep.
  Francisco G Super Reviewer
• Oct 12, 2012

  As far as shark film goes, Bait is nothing new or refreshing, and it presents a clichéd, predictable formula. The film is mediocre, but somewhat entertaining. However don't expect anything good here as this film is basically pretty cheesy, and relies on a poor cast of actors. The idea seemed really good, and it's a shame that the film has some potential, but the filmmakers can't seem to craft a good horror yarn. The film has some poorly written dialogue that is cringe worthy and instead of being something totally new and exciting, it simply relies on genre predictability to create its tension, thus you become less interested in the film, The blood effects are good, but the shark effects lack and look absolutely fake. You can tell that this is a low-budget affair, and maybe the concept may have looked good on paper, but on film the result is less impressive. This had some good ideas going for it, but due to a lacking script, and poor cast, it fails to be memorable. Bait is a disappointing creature feature that is void of genuine tension and effective thrills. Instead, it dumb down everything and there is really no pay off in the end for this flick that could have been so much more if the cast would have been better and in the end this is lazy, unimpressive filmmaking that is among the most disappointing horror features this year. As a whole, this is a forgettable flick that isn't worth your time, or unless you're having a bad movie night with friends, check it out. Otherwise pass up on this.
  Alex r Super Reviewer

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