I love a good-bad shark film (Sharknado) and I honestly expected this to be about the same; or maybe even a slow burn, wait for everyone to be eaten snorefest.

Surprisingly, this is neither.

Bait takes place in Australia, beginning with a hungover Josh sleeping in his car at the beach; his best friend Rory wakes him up and jokes that it was a bad idea to propose to his sister, Tina – Josh quips that it was a bad idea to let Rory plan his engagement party. Rory offers to check the buoy for him, since Tina was waiting further down the beach; Rory grabs a board, and as others prep a jet ski, a man jokes that they’re ‘getting wet for a change’ – which I honestly think is a weird jab to make at lifeguards, but whatever – he swims out just behind Rory and is the first victim to the shark.

Josh meets Tina, who hands him a dried seahorse, and they share their plans to visit Australia when Josh moves to Singapore with her; sirens begin to blare across the beach and Josh rushes to the jet ski to warn Rory.

Rory can’t hear the siren from so far out, and is oblivious the to carnage that happened behind him. Josh tries to warn him about the shark, but it throws him off the board and into the water; Josh tries to save him, the shark wins, leaving nothing of Rory but the necklace he was wearing in Josh’s hand.

A year later, Josh remains in Australia and Tina left for Singapore as planned, leaving her engagement ring behind. Josh leaves for work when a huge flock of various birds fly overhead from the ocean, he’s confused but continues on to the supermarket; just outside of it, sits a car with two men, Doyle and Kirby – Kirby has his face covered – they plan to rob the place before money is transferred into a security van. Doyle explains that he’s doing this and then his brother is free from Kirby’s debt.

Inside, Jamie is casually shoplifting and spotted by security; she hides in a back room where her boyfriend Ryan happens to be, he urges her to return what she’s stolen but his manager, Jessup, sees them; he phones the police and fires Ryan. The arresting officer turns out to be Jamie’s dad, Todd; he takes her to the underground parking lot and locks her in the truck – spotting Doyle heading upstairs with a gun. At the same time, Heather and Kyle are sat in their car, with dog Bully, for an intense makeout session, and Ryan lets Jamie out. He argues he lost his job, so she heads back up to get ot back for him; Ryan’s van doesn’t start and he begins searching in the back.

Upstairs, Doyle goes into Jessup’s office and demands the money. Jessup shows him the safe is empty and Doyle drags him out with the gun pressed to his back; Todd is trying to follow with his own gun out and no one seems to spot either of them in this slightly busy mart…

While stacking shelves with Naomi, Josh sees Tina with new boyfriend Steven; a commotion near the storefront distracts him before he can say anything to her. Kirby has taken a hostage, and even though both Todd and Doyle try to talk him down he still shoots her; it’s then a huge earthquake hits, sending a tsunami inland and flooding the store and parking lot.

Survivors of the sudden flooding clamber up onto the stop shelves and freezers. Todd has an injury to his leg and Kirby seems to have died with the rest of the shoppers; the front entrance is blocked by a vehicle, so Collins the security guard swims to the loading bay to look for a way out. Downstairs, Ryan’s van has flipped; he breaks a window and climbs on top of some debris to find a way out, unaware Heather and Kyle are still submerged.

Collins returns, but is dragged under the water by something; Jamie grabs his hand to help but his body floats away from the limb she’s holding. Josh and Tina realise there’s a 12-foot shark in the store with them, swept in with the tsunami; to make things worse, an aftershock hits and knocks a live wire loose – they have to turn off the power before it’s too late. Steven makes a suggestion and the group (along with a tattooed guy who is obviously Kirby), manage to make a body cage for Steven out of shelves and carts – Josh offered to go, but he has a gash on his arm that would attract the shark; Steven assures Josh that he and Tina never did anything and that he’s sure Tina still loves him. Weighed down with tin cans, Steven makes his way to the back room with Tina and Josh holding his makeshift breather above water; the shark passes by him and as he makes it to the main switch he’s stopped short – Josh has the end of his breather tube and it’s not long enough for Steven to reach. Steven pulls part of the cage off and the breather out to pull the switch, however, the weight of the tins keeps him from surfacing for air and he drowns.

In the parking lot, Heather and Kyle are arguing. Heather didn’t charge her phone before they left…but neither did Kyle; they soon become aware that there’s something in the water with them. Heather smugly opens the sunroof manually when Kyle yells at her again; he stands up and spots Ryan, warning him that he thinks there’s a shark in the water. Ryan tells him to hold tight and he’ll distract the shark long enough for them to swim to his overturned van; Ryan cuts a hand from a nearby corpse and dips it into the water – Heather and Kyle make a break for it, but Kyle tosses Bully the dog at the last second for the shark. Ryan tries to distract the shark again, but opts to shimmy on some pipes to reach the van; he slips and falls in, and in the scramble to get on the van, Kyle falls in and is eaten. Revenge for Bully!

Doyle and Naomi make a spear and quickly become close. Josh spots a vent above. Doyle helps him loop a rope above it and Jessup offers to go to get help; he ties the other end around him and is liften to the vent; once it’s open, a flood of tiny crabs wash out. He assures he can still make it, but he’s just hanging bait for the shark.

With that plan a bust, Doyle decides to catch the shark to give them a chance to make an escape out the front; Todd offers to swim over to the meat counter, but with his injured leg Jamie jumps in first, narrowly escaping the shark and collecting a meat hook to use along with some meat for bait. The meat doesn’t seem to be working and the tattooed man states it probably wants live meat by now; in a not surprising plot twist, Doyle reveals the man to be Kirby – who put his mask and jacket on a corpse – and Kirby takes Naomi, hooking her by her shirt and throwing her in the water. Doyle stabs him with the spear and the group help Naomi out; Doyle sticks the hook in Kirby and pushes him in, the shark takes the bait and is caught on the hook, held in place with the shelves.

What’s that floating on the water in the parking lot? BULLY! He swims to safety and Heather says it’s a sign of hope; inspired by her words, Ryan taps ‘shave and a haircut’ on the pipes, the sound travels upstairs and Jamie realises Ryan is still alive. Josh goes to follow Jamie, but first apologises to Tina and that he blames himself for Rory, she kisses him and he gives her Rory’s necklace that he kept. Josh and Jamie go downstairs where Heather and Ryan warn them there’s a shark, they climb onto the roof of a car and Jamie recognises it as her dad’s and that there’s a gun in the back; Josh risks life and limb to grab the gun, ammo and a taser – he jumps back in the water once the shark has circled and kills it with the shotgun.

The four return upstairs where Doyle plans to blow the tow truck in the entrance with the mains electric. Another tremor hits, shaking the shark loose and forcing Doyle to climb the walls; Josh hangs on the pipes above and the shotgun fails him – as the shark leaps for him, he shocks it with the taser. Doyle hooks the truck to an exposed wire and turns the electric on again, blowing the truck clear.

The group walk out into the destruction. Tina asks Josh what they should do now, and he says ‘we rebuild’ like he’s just survived some apocalyptic event.

4/5: It’s not a bad film. The effects are pretty good and the parking lot scenes help break away from what could have been a mundane film. There are some familiar faces in the cast, too.

However, it does start slow and I have my doubts about the shotgun and taser working after getting submerged – the shotgun I’m positive about, the taser is 50-50 but I can’t see it working.