CRUEL JAWS: The Novelization...Really!

CRUEL JAWS (Novel)

By Brad Carter

2024 / 336 pp

FROM ENCYCLOPOCALYPSE PUBLICATIONS

Review by Mr. Bonnie, the Bookworm😺

What a cool idea…take some of cinema’s cheesiest, most craptastic low budget horror films and give ‘em the full novelization treatment. Then include covers that either resemble the original promotional artwork, or better yet, look like they could’ve been released back in the good ol’ days when such pulpy paperbacks were found at every Waldenbooks and supermarket rack in the country.

It’s the brainchild of Encyclopocalypse Publications, and I can’t believe I’ve just now learned about this Movie Tie-In Series. Growing up with paperback novelizations like this is what got me to start (voluntarily) reading in the first place. Encyclopocalypse is now partnering with Severin Films to produce a series of novels based on classic cult films released by the label over the years. First up is Cruel Jaws, inspired by one of the goofiest, most infamous Jaws ripoffs ever made. 

For those unaware, Cruel Jaws was notorious for its cut-rate production, copycat story (right down to copping some of Jaws’ dialogue) and lifting most of the shark footage from other movies…including Jaws itself. An Italian production (though shot in the U.S.), it was directed by prolific sleaze merchant Bruno Mattei, who never met a popular film he couldn’t redo faster and cheaper.

The novel, adapted by Brad Carter from the original screenplay, tells basically the same story and includes some of the same daffy dialogue, though it nicely fleshes out the film’s cardboard characters and expands the subplots. At the same time, Carter doesn’t forget he’s cranking out a pulpy piece of exploitation. The novel is loaded with gobs of nasty gore and explicit sex, which was ironically absent from the film (considering Mattei’s dubious reputation). 

Available in two editions.

Obviously, we ain’t talking The Old Man and the Sea here. The book will never be mistaken for great literature, nor is its author a master wordsmith. Still, Cruel Jaws is a fun read, with plenty of spectacular shark action that Mattei was simply unable to depict with the meager resources at his disposal. A guilty pleasure, to be sure, but a compulsive page turner.

The icing on the cake is the wonderful book design. Cruel Jaws is available in both mass market or trade editions, each with different covers. The trade version features the film’s original promotional art. But personally, I have a nostalgic soft spot for the mass market edition because it closely resembles the Jaws 2 novelization and recalls an era when novels like this were never intended as anything more than quick & dirty beach reads (which this book definitely is). 

And what movie tie-in would be complete without stills from the movie itself? This one includes 17 pages of black & white photos along and the film’s original poster art. The book also features a forward by Sharksploitation director Stephen Scarlata, who nicely sums up Cruel Jaws’ place in the pantheon of squalid shark cinema. 

We’ve all heard someone boast their literary snootiness with “the book was better than the movie.” But in this case, it’s inarguably true. While you may ashamed of yourself for enjoying it, Cruel Jaws is a bloody blast.