Trivia / Devil Fish

• Accidentally-Correct Writing: It's presented as though the doctor did everything he could for one victim by zapping him with a defibrillator, but the result is exactly what would happen in reality if you defibrillated someone with a pulse; it kills him. A defibrillator is only used if the patient is already flatlined; using on someone who has a pulse is a great way to stop their heart entirely.
• Colbert Bump: It's safe to say this movie is only known to a lot of people because it appeared on a season 9 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
• Completely Different Title: The movie's Italian title, Shark - Rosso nell'oceano, roughly translates as Shark from the Red Ocean. It was originally released in English as Monster Shark, then retitled Devil Fish for its video release. It was also released as Monster from the Red Ocean and Devouring Waves, and retitled Apocalypse dans l'ocean rouge (Apocalypse in the Red Ocean) in French.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: VideoHound's capsule review claims that the film features "berserk manta rays." Admittedly, there is a species of ray called "devil fish"...but it seems likely that whoever wrote that review didn't actually watch the movie.
• Fake American: Basically everyone, as the movie is officially set in Florida but played by actors of all different nationalities including one actual American, Michael Sopkiw. Italian films back then were done with both the English speaking and non-English speaking markets in mind, and they usually hired actors of different nationalities. Since Italian productions were produced on very small budgets and very limited schedules, they went away with the boom mic, had all the actors say their lines on their own language (the reason why some lip synching looks good and some other doesn't even begin to match) and they just redubbed over them in post in different languages.
• Follow the Leader: One of the last post-Jaws killer sea monster films.
• Technology Marches On:
  • The ship's computer graphics look like they were taken from an Atari 2600, which is pretty bad since the film was released in 1984.
  • When we first see Sandra, she's actually playing Scuba Diver, an Atari 2600 game. The game, fittingly, has you playing a diver bringing up salvage and rescuing people while avoiding sharks.

---