By MICHAEL GINGOLD
It’s an event that’ll give you all the sharks you can handle.
Fathom Press has teamed with the Brooklyn Horror Society for a special screening of Bruno Mattei’s CRUEL JAWS, tied with a book-release party for Donald Cheatham’s killer-shark novel RIPTIDE. The event takes place Wednesday, May 20 at 8 p.m. at Lucky 13 Saloon (644 Sackett Street, Brooklyn, NY).
Fathom is reissuing RIPTIDE, originally published in 1984, as part of its Savage Harvest line; the synopsis: “Surfside—an up-and-coming coastal paradise where the sun is shining, the water is warm, and the women are beautiful. For former St. Louis Detective Michael Stark, it’s a fresh start—an escape from the notoriety and scandal of the life he left behind. But when a rogue tiger shark begins to terrorize this coastal community, Stark and his partner, Liza Sallings, are tasked with stopping the bloodshed. Meanwhile, just offshore, another danger is gathering: a hurricane unlike any the Gulf Coast has ever faced…” The book, which sports new cover art by Stephen Andrade and an introduction by indie filmmaker/sharksploitation specialist Mark Polonia (COCAINE SHARK, SHARKENSTEIN), ships on Memorial Day and can be pre-ordered here.
CRUEL JAWS, shot in 1994 by Mattei under the pseudonym “William Snyder,” is about a huge tiger shark terrorizing the waters off the Florida coast. It’s notorious for utilizing footage from the JAWS movies, Enzo G. Castellari’s THE LAST SHARK/GREAT WHITE and Raf Donato/Joe D’Amato’s DEEP BLOOD; it was even released as JAWS 5 in certain territories! It has its own novelization by Brad Carter issued by Severin Films, which released CRUEL JAWS on Blu-ray on DVD; those can be ordered here.
