A made-for-TV effort based on a series of true events that happened in the New Jersey coastal town of Matawan during the summer of 1916, 12 Days Of Terror takes a story that was apparently the inspiration for Peter Benchley's novel Jaws, tosses in a few mild shark attack scenes, and glosses over the truth slightly to come out with a mostly diverting telefilm.

From the get go director Jack Sholder does a good job of capturing the decade by blending narration from our lead character Alex (Colin Egglesfield) with newspaper clippings and grainy footage. He's also helped out by the production design and costumes, which do a good job of emulating the time period.

It's summer in Matawan and going to the beach has become a good way for people to escape stories of a war brewing overseas. Be it a weekend sunbathing, or a swim to get away from the humidity, the beaches along the coast can't be beat. Egglesfield's Alex is a local lifeguard who takes his job seriously. In fact, the guy needs to calm down a little bit. One afternoon a swimmer is attacked by some sort of creature. Alex is sure it was a shark and sets out to try and convince the city council that they may just have a problem on their hands.

Of course, nobody believes him, save for a grizzly fisherman simply called "Cap" (John Rhys-Davies), but they sort of have no choice when a few more attacks start to occur. It looks like there is a shark out there after all, and it seems to have quite the appetite for human legs since all director Sholder shows is the giant fish taking chunks out of (and in one case chewing off) human legs - which is about all the blood you're going to get from the movie save for shots of it bubbling up in the water various times.

From here 12 Days Of Terror follows Alex's quest for revenge after his best friend is killed, the townsfolk trying to keep calm, and various attempts to stop their shark visitor before we're treated to a pretty underwhelming finale that offers mild attempts at thrills (which, not surprisingly, riff on Jaws) and passable shark effects. Scripters Jeffrey Reiner and Tommy Lee Wallace even manage to throw-in a subplot involving a wannabe big game hunter (Jamie Bartlett), which serves mostly for so-so comic relief.

Playing out as more of a drama than horror movie, 12 Days Of Terror makes for an okay timewaster that's better than a lot of its type with adequately developed characters and steady direction by veteran Sholder (who many of us know from helming The Hidden and 1982's Alone In The Dark). Co-writer Wallace has been responsible for many a horror flick sequel including, most infamously, the third Halloween movie. (Chris Hartley, 3/22/06)

Directed By: Jack Sholder.
Written By: Jeffrey Reiner, Tommy Lee Wallace.

Starring: Colin Egglesfield, Mark Dexter, Jenna Harrison, John Rhys-Davies.

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: It's not crystal clear and it looks a bit soft at times, but generally MTI has given this a solid transfer with mostly rich colour and no debris evident.

Extras: The disc we recieved only contained a trailer, the official release is also set to contain a "Terror Timeline", a featurette called "Who's The Likely Culprit", biographies, and filmographies.

Visit MTI Home Video for more info.