The Shark Night Scene That Went Too Far

When it comes to horror movies, you have to anticipate some gruesome deaths. From having to saw off legs to getting eaten by killer clowns, there's no shortage of ways characters have met untimely demises, and there's more than enough carnage to spare with 2011's "Shark Night," otherwise known as "Shark Night 3D" seeing as how every film that came out in 2011 needed to be in 3D.

In the grand tradition of killer shark movies like "Jaws" and "Deep Blue Sea," this horror flick ups the ante by making it clear that the most dangerous creature out there isn't the great white. It's man. It turns out the barrage of vicious fish ruining the central teens' vacation by the lake is actually a result of some weird guys who film the deaths and sell the footage to whoever wants it online. 

As for the deaths themselves, there are plenty of them throughout the flick, but they're relatively tame. With a PG-13 rating, the movie mainly deals with people dying either off-screen or flailing in the water for a little bit while a red pool develops around them. That's what makes it all the more bizarre when one particular death takes things too far and momentarily dives into torture porn territory.

If "Shark Night" had been "Saw" with sharks where all the characters receive horrifically drawn-out deaths, then perhaps the final moments of Beth (Katharine McPhee) wouldn't be so jarring. Her death scene involves getting pushed into a cage filled with cookie-cutter sharks, which are essentially piranhas, that pick apart her flesh. The scene lasts for a solid minute as the audience watches this woman flail in the water as tiny sharks eat away at her body. It feels even more exploitative considering her captors stripped her down to underwear beforehand.

Beth's death feels out of place in a movie that operates squarely in PG-13 territory for most of the runtime and then takes its sweet time focusing on this nearly naked woman facing a slow, painful death. Even the villains of the movie don't face such gruesome fates. Sheriff Greg Sabin (Donal Logue) is responsible for many deaths early in the film, and his demise involves him getting pulled underwater by a tiger shark. It's a quick, karmic death that doesn't linger too long on the fact a man was probably bitten in half by a giant shark.

With that in mind: Why do Beth's final moments get such immense attention to detail? Previously, she had felt scared for her life after watching her friend, Maya (Alyssa Diaz), die in the water, and she just wanted to go back home. The fact her final moments were monumentally unpleasant leaves a bad taste in the mouth.