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PARASOMNIA: Writer-director-producer William Malone on the newly released director’s cut – Exclusive Interview

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 04:43:40 +0000

WILLIAM MALONE’S PARASOMNIA, written and directed by Malone, is finally available in its director’s cut on Prime Video.

PARASOMNIA concerns a young woman, Laura Baxter (Cherilyn Wilson), who suffers from the rare title condition. Narcolepsy is a disorder where people fall asleep without warning, but with parasomnia, waking moments are few and far between. Laura’s condition makes her vulnerable to the control of serial killer Byron Volpe (Patrick Kilpatrick). Record store employee Danny Sloan (Dylan Purcell) attempts to come to Laura’s rescue.

PARASOMNIA is unquestionably a horror movie. However, this is an instance where its distribution history may be even scarier than the film itself.

Malone relates, “What happened was, the distributors weren’t terribly good. They’ll sell you a big line of how great they’re going to do. But the first thing they did is, when they distributed the film, they sold it to Brazil. They sent the negative of the digital file first, and the next day it was on the Internet for free. So, it pretty much destroyed any ability that we had to get our money back. Financially, it was a disaster because of that. Piracy just destroyed the movie.”

He declines to name those original distributors, adding with a laugh, “You can go look it up.”

However, Malone eventually got the movie back, waiting until all the rights reverted to him. “So, it’s mine now, and we just licensed it through Samuel Goldwyn for streaming, and it’s now available on Prime Video.”

How did PARASOMNIA find its way to Samuel Goldwyn? “They actually contacted me. They had heard about the film and they looked it up. It hadn’t been on streaming for a very long time and they wanted to get it out there, so we put a deal together.”

PARASOMNIA movie poster | courtesy William Malone

After Malone’s earlier experience, “I wasn’t going to do the deal with any strings attached. That was my deal with Samuel Goldwyn. I said, ‘Look, the only reason I’m doing this deal is to get the movie out the way I see the film. Otherwise, we don’t have a deal.’ And they were totally good with that, so it’s in the contract, no changes could be made, they can’t cut it. They can insert commercials in it, if it’s on a commercial network, but that’s about it. No edits to the content.”

The Prime Video version doesn’t mention “that it’s the director’s cut, so people are going to go on there thinking it’s the original version, and so, the next thing I have to do is say, ‘Hey come on, have it say “Director’s Cut,” so people will know.’”

Malone explains that the cut now streaming “is the way I saw the film originally.”

In what amounted to adding insult to injury, the original distributors insisted on changes in the editing of PARASOMNIA. “The distributors wanted to bring some stuff forward, which I thought hurt the movie. To do that, we had to restructure it in such a way that it jumped around timewise, which I’m not a big fan of. It’s been done, certainly, very well by some directors, but I just didn’t feel it was working on this film.”

Therefore, once Malone had the rights again, “I went through and recut the film the way it was originally meant to be, and that’s substantially different, because the film plays now in a much more linear fashion than the original release does.”

Malone cites a key scene. “There was a sequence where little boy Danny meets Laura when they’re both children. That was originally shot in black and white. That got trimmed down to almost nothing in the original version, and now I’ve put that back in, and that plays very early in the film. What’s good is that everything ties together now, when you see where everything came from.”

Having more time also allowed Malone to make visual as well as structural alterations. Originally, “We got pressured into making some changes, and also just time crunches. There were things that I wanted to do that I just wasn’t able to do. I wanted to use miniatures instead of using some CG stuff. So, I was able to shoot miniatures and replace those shots. So, that’s a big part of it.”

The miniatures are based on the work of Polish artist Zdislaw Beksiński (1929-2005). “He passed away just before we made PARASOMNIA. We got the rights to use his artwork. And he apparently wanted to have his artwork in movies, so we were very pleased to be able to strike a deal with the people who owned the rights to his artwork. I think we had six or seven images that we were able to draw from, and recreate some of those for the miniatures, and there’s some other stuff So check out Zdzislaw Beksiński.”

Much of this is seen in a sequence “somewhere around the middle of the movie. Laura is walking through her dream world and she goes through this long corridor of lost souls, with giant skeletons. That stuff was originally CG. That’s the stuff that I replaced recently. Later in that sequence, towards the end of the sequence, she goes out and she’s in this area where are all these coffins. There are these giant things that are like statues or dead things – I don’t even know what they are,” Malone laughs. “They’re creepy. So, we did those as miniatures and they turned out really well.” Most of the shots with miniatures also have live-action elements. “Cherilyn Wilson has to interact with the stuff.”

Laura encounters many mirrors in her adventures. “Those we kept. Those were all through the entire film, and those are from the original version. Some of those are real, some of them are CG, but that was back in the day.”

Some miniatures, Malone adds, have been retained from the original version, including a quasi-graveyard “that had these weird creatures in it. That was all done by Fantasy II, the guys who did TERMINATOR and so many other movies. I saw one of their movies the other day, THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES. They did the whole bridge sequence and it was just amazing. They’re just incredible artists. I want to say I couldn’t have made PARASOMNIA without them, because we shot a lot of the stuff at their place Fantasy II, which was in Sunland [in Los Angeles County].”

The Fantasy II facilities were also used as a live-action soundstage where much of the climax of PARASOMNIA takes place, with automaton musicians. “It looks like a theatre. Alison Brie, who was just starting out then, is one of the women with the instruments.”

The re-release allowed Malone to redo PARASOMNIA’s color timing. At the time of the original release, “We weren’t able to color-time it in any kind of serious way, because of the money involved. Back then, when you wanted to get a DaVinci Resolve suite, it was major amounts of money. So, I’ve learned DaVinci myself. That program, by the way, went from being an $800,000 program and to now you can get it for $300. There’s even a free version, which I highly recommend to anybody who wants to get into it, because most of the stuff you really need is in the free version.”

Malone wants to give a shout-out to his PARASOMNIA cast. “There are some great performances in it, and there are some people who have left us, including Phil Newby, who played Phil the record collector, and he was great.

“Also, look for Tom Kuntz’s great automatons, which are miniatures that you’ll see in the film. He did some great work in it. If you’re not familiar with Thomas Kuntz, look him up. He’s amazing.”

What is Malone working on at present?

“I’ve had a lot of interest in some of my unproduced scripts, most notably THE MIRROR, which was a project I had with the late surrealist artist H.R. Giger [whose work includes the creature design for the original ALIEN]. Mega-publisher Mark Miller at Encyclopocalypse Publishing has expressed interest in putting out a novelization. I’m now working with a great young writer, Andy Forman, on the book. We expect to have the novelization out by the end of the year. I’m very excited to finally have this project see the light of day.

“Also, due to the recent wave of interest in my 2002 film FEARDOTCOM, I’m currently working on an expanded documentary on the making of that. The video will include a great deal of never-before-seen material on the film. That should be released on my YouTube channel UNDERTAKING CINEMA before Halloween.”

What would Malone like to tell people who’ve never seen PARASOMNIA about the movie?

“I think it’s sort of a dark fairytale. The full title of the film is PARASOMNIA: DREAMS OF THE SLEEPWALKER. So, that tells you where it’s at. So, don’t expect it to be entirely realistic, because that’s not really what the film is about. Like I say, it’s a dark fairytale. There’s some gory stuff in it, which is mostly in the second half.”

And what would Malone like to say to people who have seen the previous cut and have memories of it?

“I think the film plays really well now. I would like to say that I think it’s quite a different movie, and hopefully they’ll give it a look. I’m very proud of it. I hope they like it.”

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Article: Exclusive Interview: Writer – producer – director William Malone about the director’s cut of PARASOMNIA on Prime Video

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Movie Review: TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 04:43:35 +0000

Rating: R
Stars: Hannah Einbinder, Gillian Anderson, Jack Haven, Amanda Fix, Patrick Fischler
Writer: Jane Schoenbrun
Director: Jane Schoenbrun
Distributor: MUBI
Release Date: August 7, 2026

Part of the fun of writer/director Jane Schoenbrun’s TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA is to spot its influences, although this is an instance of inspiration rather than derivation.

The single most obvious nod here is to FRIDAY THE 13^TH, mainly because nobody can comment on the summer-camp-slasher subgenre without acknowledging that seminal franchise.

However, the film also tackles the SLEEPAWAY CAMP movies, which have a premise rooted in transphobia. Filmmaker Schoenbrun is trans herself and has clearly thought about what a modern adaptation would look like. More to the point, she muses about what would be going on behind-the-scenes, which she imagines as a cynical effort to politically-correct-wash the optics without doing much about the subject matter.

Perhaps best of all, TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA succeeds at something that many have tried but few have achieved – it coherently and persuasively articulates at least part of the appeal of slashers.

In TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA, Hannah Einbinder plays young queer filmmaker Kris, who has been tapped to reboot the CAMP MIASMA horror movies. Kris knows these films, their toys, their videogames, by heart. She also knows that she’s been given the director’s reins because the studio wants to paint over the original CAMP MIASMA’s transphobic premise, even though hiring a lesbian (albeit one with super goodwill towards the entire LGBTQ community) may not automatically align with trans positivity.

Kris is determined to meet Billy (Gillian Anderson in the present, Amanda Fix in the flashbacks/film clips), who played the final girl in the first CAMP MIASMA, but declined to appear in any of the sequels. Oddly enough, Billy has moved into a cabin on the old and otherwise deserted CAMP MIASMA set. This full recreation of a summer camp borders the shore of the lake where Little Death (Jack Haven), the franchise slasher, continually resurrects himself.

Billy is part secretive recluse, part down-to-Earth hostess. Something is going on here, and Billy isn’t quick to disclose it, but she and Kris bond over their love of the CAMP MIASMA movies and horror in general. The two women are also intrigued by one another, as individuals and as potential partners. As real life and fiction start to blur, Billy divulges there’s something in the lake besides Little Death …

There are a lot of filmmakers who seek to make a movie that can also serve as a doctoral thesis, but not many can do it as viscerally and empathetically as Schoenbrun does here.

Schoenbrun lets us know right away that TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA is part parody. The trailer shows us that Little Death wears an air-conditioning unit instead of a mask on his head; when he decapitates a victim, the resulting geyser would do Old Faithful proud.

The movie also displays Schoenbrun’s affinity for dark images with luminescent elements, and for outright surrealism. There are moments when the backgrounds turn to paintings.

So, it’s a bit surprising and irresistibly immersive when TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA begins to provide real insights as Kris and Billy investigate themselves and each other. The observations are solid and will resonate with many slasher lovers.

Anderson delightfully inhabits Billy, embracing her loopy, coquettish Southern belle attributes that slide easily into a much more knowing persona. Einbinder is natural, vulnerable and gives a fearless performance as the diffident Kris.

Schoenbrun and Haven give Little Death more personality than is customary for a silent masked slasher; he has discernible attitude in his use of his signature weapon. Fix is excellent as Billy’s younger, more plaintive self, and Patrick Fischler is a hoot as the film’s designated harbinger.

For all its out-there qualities, TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA delivers on the straightforward slasher front. But it’s when its strangeness and originality come to the fore that it really wins us over. It posits that horror can be a source of genuine joy and has the goods to back up this philosophy.

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Movie Review: ICE CREAM MAN

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 04:43:30 +0000

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Ari Millen, Charlie Zeltzer, Shiloh O’Reilly, Kiori Mirza Waldman, Sarah Abbott, Benjamin Byron Davis, Karen Cliche, Dylan Hawco, Eli Roth
Writers: Eli Roth and Noah Belson, story by Eli Roth
Director: Eli Roth
Distributor: The Horror Section
Release Date: August 7, 2026

ICE CREAM MAN, directed by Eli Roth from a screenplay by Roth and Noah Belson, from a story by Roth, may or may not be based on the short story “I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream” by John Farris.

Farris’s story is not credited here, but it was the basis for the 2007 MASTERS OF HORROR episode “We All Scream for Ice Cream.” Both it and ICE CREAM MAN have a sinister ice cream truck proprietor (in ICE CREAM MAN, a marvelous, wordless Ari Millen), along with his mobile shop, who has a strange effect on the relationships between parents and children in a small town.

Both the movie and the TV episode owe a good deal to the medieval legend of the Pied Piper, about a man who takes supernatural revenge on people who have wronged him by bewitching their children. In the myth, the children follow the piper away, never to be seen again; here, they stick around, with homicidal results.

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET is a riff on this as well, but where Freddy Krueger was guilty of the crimes for which he was killed, the Ice Cream Man turns out to be an innocent, blamed for the heinous offenses of another. His vengeance is righteous, if extremely gory.

ICE CREAM MAN invites us to the picturesque town of Bayleen Bay, a wholesome slice of Americana. In the park, kids play tag and baseball, although poor preteen Jared (Charlie Zeltzer) isn’t very good at the latter. He’s also lactose intolerant, so he reluctantly misses out when a new ice cream truck appears, distributing sweet treats to the other youngsters and teens.

Jared notices, as do we, that instead of the stickers an ice cream truck customarily bears with pictures of its wares, this one has a smiling cartoon snake for a flavor called Serpent Swirl, a smiling cartoon bug for a flavor called Creepy Crawler, and so on. The ice cream looks and tastes normal, though, so the young customers are happy to eat it.

All the boys have crushes on Jared’s gorgeous high-schooler big sister Lizzie (Sarah Abbott), who has recently broken up with her doofus boyfriend, newly-minted handyman Chris (Dylan Hawco).

Jared and Lizzie’s parents Marty (filmmaker Roth) and Alison (Karen Cliche) are lawyers. While loving, they are exerting heavy pressure on Lizzie to join the family profession, started by their strict grandfather.

That evening, the children who’ve eaten the ice cream begin murdering their parents in a variety of gruesome ways. In the early morning, they move on to killing adult neighbors. When Jared gets to junior high in the morning, his classmates sit mutely at first, then go after the teachers.

Jared encounters two unaffected peers, Mia (Kiori Mirza Waldman) and Tommy (Shiloh O’Reilly). They team up in an attempt to escape the school – and to try to stop the Ice Cream Man, if they can.

The first act is a bit relaxed, but it’s also relatively short, giving us time to get to know the main characters and also to lay in some mythology. Once the blood starts flowing, the pace picks up to racing speed. Given how fast events are moving, we can’t blame some characters for metaphorically failing to look before they leap.

Roth is gleeful in designing the murders, which the kids often treat as tactile arts and crafts projects. It’s heavy on comic sadism (if that’s not an oxymoron), with splatter galore.

There’s a sense that most of the children are slightly older than they ought to be, likely for budgetary reasons (easier to find teens who look younger and can legally to work long hours than to use actual little ones who come with time restrictions, mandated teachers, and considerations about having them witness and enact extreme, albeit pretend, violence). This doesn’t really mar the overall effect, as the performers look young enough to be suitably creepy.

ICE CREAM MAN has a playful sensibility – the opening credits mention that it’s “filmed in S’cream-o-Vision” – that runs alongside its full-throttle horror. It’s a bit like TALES FROM THE CRYPT on blast, not trying to do anything new, just succeeding at being twisted and eerie enough to be bloody fun.

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Movie Review: BIG BABY

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 04:43:22 +0000

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Brandon Scott, Krsy Fox, Adam Marcinowski, Catherine Corcoran, Torio Van Grol, Kate Freund, Jordan Elsass, Radek Lord, David Howard Thornton, Tracie Thoms, Sierra McCormick, Del Howison, Angel Melanson
Writer: Spider One
Director: Spider One
Distributor: Brainstorm Media
Release Date: August 7, 2026 (streaming)

Horror movies that want us to guess if one character is losing their mind or if something supernatural is going on are tough to pull off. Just a little over-emphasis in one direction or the other can not only tip off the audience too early, but it can make everything between that revelation and the finale seem superfluous.

BIG BABY writer/director Spider One is mostly successful with this aspect of his contemporary slasher, at least partly because he keeps this ambiguous until almost the very end.

BIG BABY’s protagonist is horror screenwriter Adam Lewis (Brandon Scott). Adam is financially and professionally successful. On top of this, he has a supportive, gorgeous live-in girlfriend, Kate (Krsy Fox).

Even so, Adam is extremely dissatisfied. He wants more respect, he wants more prestige and, most of all, he wants a new premise for a screenplay.

Adam is driven to frustration and fury by a horror movie review podcast from two smug young jerks (Jordan Elsass and Radek Lord). One of them calls the film made from Adam’s latest script, THE BLACKEST MOON, “one of the worstest [spelling is correct] movies I’ve ever seen” and advises whoever wrote it to kill themselves for having written it.

In fairness to Adam, it’s snide, say-anything-for-a-quote putzes like these guys who give public discussion of films a bad name. We can’t blame him for being mad.

We can, however, blame Adam for wallowing, even after Kate tries to cheer him up. Adam gets drunk, wakes up, hears a noise, goes outside – and he and we get a super-effective jump scare.

Adam wakes up in the morning, inspired by the visceral nightmare he’s endured. He devises a story about a hulking slasher in a distorted baby mask (Adam Marcinowski), whose weapon of choice is a long-handled hatchet.

So far, so good. The only nagging problem for Adam is that his and Kate’s bedsheets have new, real slices in them, the kind made by a sharp-edged blade.

Then Adam starts seeing and hearing his characters talk to him. A lot of writers maintain this happens for them, but they’re probably not being quite so literal as what happens here.

Filmmaker Spider One brings up some intriguing notions about what, if anything, creators owe to what they create. However, he doesn’t investigate this much, leaving one of BIG BABY’s most original aspects to trail off.

Since we spend a lot of time with Adam and Kate as a couple, more exploration of Kate’s character and the relationship would have given BIG BABY more heft and tension.

Kate is a patient, loving listener. Adam doesn’t seem much interested in what’s going on in Kate’s life; he and the movie treat her like a sounding board with benefits. Never mind the domestic situation becoming menacing; we think she’d leave on the basis of being taken for granted.

These elements aside, though, Spider One is adept at staging ominous scenes, even teasing some alarming moments out of set-ups where we know what’s coming. He also holds our attention by employing unconventional camera angles, making us as well as Adam look at things in a different way.

BIG BABY also benefits greatly from the performance of leading man Scott, who takes Adam from authentic if familiar Hollywood solipsism to the desperation of a man who simply cannot articulate what he’s experiencing.

Fox is appealing as Kate, and Torio Van Grol is very natural as Adam’s warm, geeky best friend. Elsass and Lord make their characters appropriately annoying. Horror fans will appreciate cameos from actors David Howard Thornton and Tracie Thoms, author (and Dark Delicacies proprietor) Del Howison, and FANGORIA online editor Angel Melanson, among others.

BIG BABY leaves a few things on the table, but it’s unusual and impactful enough to be worth watching. Viewers should stay for a final sequence that runs through and past the end credits.

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Movie Review: SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 03:34:17 +0000

Rating: PG-13
Stars: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jon Bernthal, Sadie Sink, Mark Ruffalo, Liza Colón-Zayas, Michael Mando, Tramell Tillman
Writers: Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers, based on characters created by Stan Lee & Joe Ditko
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton
Distributor: Sony/Columbia
Release Date: July 31, 2026

We love you, Spidey, but you never make it easy on yourself – and sometimes you don’t make it easy on us, either.

SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY is the fourth SPIDER-MAN movie to star Tom Holland (who has also played the character in other Marvel Cinematic Universe, aka MCU, movies) once Spider-Man/Peter Parker had been enfolded into the MCU superheroes franchise that is mainly distributed by Disney. However, live-action SPIDER-MAN movies began at Sony/Columbia with 2002’s SPIDER-MAN, starring Tobey Maguire and directed by Sam Raimi, and are still put out by that studio.

Maguire and Raimi teamed up for two more SPIDER-MAN movies. Then the franchise was rebooted with Andrew Garfield in the lead in 2012’s THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and its follow-up, 2014’s THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2.

Holland’s iteration of Peter Parker/Spider-Man was introduced in 2016’s CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, before starring in 2017’s SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING.

Because the MCU has the multiverse – that is, the idea of multiple universes that coexist simultaneously – as a fundamental precept, both Maguire’s and Garfield’s Peter Parkers/Spider-Men accidentally wound up in BRAND NEW DAY’s immediate predecessor, 2021’s SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME, landing in the home dimension of Holland’s Peter Parker/Spider-Man. This resulted in (among other things) some intentionally and effectively hilarious conversations about Spidey-specific burdens.

And no, none of that is what makes SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY confusing. But we have to be mindful that, while Maguire’s and Garfield’s characters got their powers from being bitten by genetically modified spiders, Holland’s Peter did get bitten, but originally made his own Spider suit and webbing, which both got a tremendous upgrade from the late (and not seen in this film) billionaire Tony Stark/Iron Man.

This turns out to matter a whole lot in SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY, with Peter uncharacteristically not feeling well. In order to save the world in NO WAY HOME, Peter had to have the sorcerer Dr. Strange wipe the memory of everyone on Earth of his existence. Everybody is still aware of Spider-Man, of course, just not the man under the mask.

This means that Peter’s true love MJ (Zendaya) and his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) have entirely forgotten him. Still, Ned is pretty obsessed with New York’s favorite web-slinging crime fighter, and both he and MJ recall multiple instances of being rescued by Spider-Man.

NYPD Detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas) appreciates Spider-Man’s help thwarting bank robberies and other violent crimes, although she wishes the workaholic supe would take some time off before he makes himself sick.

Then there’s a strange attack on a government facility, where an unknown person is able to take over the bodies of others, one at a time, in rapid succession. When this doesn’t work on Spider-Man, it leads to danger, and Spider-Man has to ask a couple of old associates for assistance both physical and theoretical.

The banter in the screenplay by Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers, based on characters created by Stan Lee & Joe Ditko, works MJ and Ned into the proceedings in a reasonable enough way, and the banter between everyone is enjoyable.

Then we get to a third-act twist and, while BRAND NEW DAY doesn’t turn into a brand-new movie, it definitely switches gears. It resolves the issues of this particular film fair and square, but it also feels like it’s as concerned with setting up future MCU stories as with the one it’s telling now.

Director Destin Daniel Cretton devises an eerie, visually striking method of showing the mysterious individual jumping from one person to the next. He also adroitly handles all the crashes, explosions, Spider-stunts and gunplay (there’s more of this here than usual in an MCU movie).

But it feels that SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY may have lost some moments on the cutting-room floor that would have added to its length but maybe also made for a smoother ride. Again, those not immersed in the lore may struggle to figure out if we’re supposed to know things like what exactly happened during an oft-mentioned incident on Staten Island and when/why one familiar character decided to alter their appearance since the last time we saw them.

Holland adds just the right amount of world-weariness to Peter’s essentially boyish goodness. Zendaya is grounded and thoughtful as MJ, and Batalon adds a little maturity without tamping down Ned’s enthusiasm. The supporting team, which includes Colón-Zayas Jon Bernthal, Sadie Sink, Mark Ruffalo and more, is excellent.

SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY loves its characters and has strong set pieces, both qualities that make it entertaining. It just may have a little too much going on to fully service everything it tackles.

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Movie Review: NIGHTBORN (YON LAPSI)

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 03:33:32 +0000

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Seidi Haarla, Rupert Grint, Pamela Tola, Pirkko Saisio, Rebecca Lacey, John Thomson, Silvia Saloranta, Max Cavalera
Writers: Ilja Rautsi & Hanna Bergholm, story by Hanna Bergholm
Director: Hanna Bergholm
Distributor: Shudder
Release Date: July 31, 2026 (streaming on Shudder)

NIGHTBORN (YÖN LAPSI) is a great companion piece to its director Hanna Bergholm’s previous film, 2022’s HATCHING. Both are dark fantasies about motherhood and supernatural beings. But where HATCHING was from the point of view of a teenager dealing with her mother at the same time she becomes a surrogate parent to a forest creature, NIGHTBORN’s protagonist is a new mother whose infant is not what she was expecting.

We meet wildly-in-love newlyweds Saga (Seidi Haarla) and Jon (Rupert Grint) as they prepare to move into Saga’s childhood summer home. This is a sprawling old wooden fixer-upper in the middle of a Finland forest (NIGHTBORN was actually shot in nearby Lithuania). Plants are growing up through the floorboards and there’s a lot of metallic junk in the front yard, but Saga and Jon are undeterred.

Saga, who is Finnish, and Jon, who is English, both want a family with three children. They get started on this in the woods near the house, where the trees grow with what look like distorted human faces in their trunks and clutching fingers extending from their branches.

We cut from passionate lovemaking to the hospital room where Saga is giving birth a bit (but not dangerously) early. The little boy is healthy, if unusually hairy, and Saga is so weakened by her ordeal that she comes home on crutches.

While Jon is insistently optimistic, Saga is having some problems. Some come from the baby, who draws blood when he feeds; some come from her impatience with Jon; some are clearly her own, like her hit of calling her child “it” instead of “him.”

When Saga’s distinctly unmaternal mother (Pinkko Saisio), sister Taru (Pamela Tola) and young niece Anna (Silvia Saloranta) come for a visit, we and Saga get a large clue as to what may be occurring.

Director Bergholm, who co-wrote the screenplay from her own story with HATCHING screenwriter Ilja Rautsi, excels at playing a variation on the common what’s-going-on-here game. Since we’re seeing things from Saga’s viewpoint, we tend to buy into her suspicions. However, the film makes us understand how easily Jon and everyone else can be so sure that Saga is having psychiatric issues.

And indeed, something is going on with Saga beyond her ambivalence about baby Kuula, who infuriates her but who she also says she cannot be without. Haarla’s performance encompasses everything, from ardor to shame to irritation to feral rage.

Grint provides staunch support as a man increasingly desperate to do the right thing by his wife and son, if only he can figure out what that right thing is.

While most of the characters in NIGHTBORN speak fluent English, Jon doesn’t speak Finnish. This works as a metaphor for stilted communication, but it also makes us want to know a bit more than we get about the characters. Yes, the spine of the film is the interpersonal dynamic, but what is Saga giving up to become a parent, and what is Jon doing in Finland (and what kind of job does he have) if he can’t speak the language?

We also wind up with a few mythological questions, but it would be spoilery to lay them out here.

Mostly, though, NIGHTBORN draws us into magical riff on the vagaries of caring for a newborn, punctuated by bouts of horror, with some beguilingly imaginative visual flourishes.

In English and Finnish.

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SHARK WEEK: WHAT SHARK ATTACKED?: Shark experts Tom “the Blowfish” Hird & Kinga Philipps on new Discovery documentary – Exclusive Interview

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 03:29:21 +0000

SHARK WEEK’s documentary WHAT SHARK ATTACKED? premieres on Discovery Channel and its streaming outlets on Wednesday, July 29. It follows shark researchers Tom “the Blowfish” Hird, Rosie Moore, and Kinga Philipps as they examine evidence from unfortunate human/shark interactions and try to determine which species of shark was involved.

Philipps and Hird get on Zoom for a joint call from separate locations to discuss WHAT SHARK ATTACKED?

Hird shares his office with a terrarium containing crested gecko lizard Ghibli, named after the famed Japanese animation studio. Hird describes himself as not only a big fan of Studio Ghibli’s output, but also “the world’s only heavy-metal marine biologist.” Originally from Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, Hird is an enthusiastic diver, whose writings include the book BLOWFISH’S OCEANOPEDIEA: 291 EXTRAORDINARY THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THE SEA.

Behind journalist and shark expert Philipps are a painting of the sea meeting the beach, plus a collection of rocks and a stack of books on sharks, topped by a smallish set of shark jaws. Philipps became the first solo woman host of a Discovery Channel SHARK WEEK show in 2020 with TIGER QUEEN. Among her many achievements is being an ambassador for the organization Waves for Water, which provides clean water for those in need.

The discussion gets off to a jocular start in determining who it is who says in WHAT SHARK ATTACKED? that, “More people are killed by coconuts.”

Philipps thinks it was her, but “I actually don’t remember. Do you remember, Fish? I know I’ve said that a million times. I will say, I think every shark conservationist, scientist, shark-adjacent person has used that. So, you can probably attribute that to any of us. Or. more toilets kill people than sharks. That’s one of my personal favorites.”

Toilets are killing people? How does that happen, and do we want to know?

Hird, not unlike a shark, takes the bait. “Well, people are wandering around, late at night, they’ve had a big day, toilet’s starting to lose its mind a little, it sees you coming, and then, bang. It’s just how toilets do it – dropping from height, biting your ankles off – you know. We’ve all been attacked by a toilet at some point.”

Philipps, laughing, supports this explanation. “They’re very aggressive.” She amends her comment to explain that it’s more likely toilet fatalities are caused by people falling in bathrooms and hitting their heads, but still maintains with a straight face, “Yes, toilets can be aggressive.”

The producers of WHAT SHARK ATTACKED? provided the footage and other materials to aid the shark experts’ investigations, Philipps relates. “They bring it to us for analysis. Oftentimes, these are recent incidents, these are things that are viral.

“For a type of show like this,” Philipps continues, “you need something that isn’t entirely identified, or maybe there are some clues there, maybe the media has put out some information, but you want more of an expert eye to take a look at it and really break it down and analyze it. So, those are the ones that the production has gathered for us, and we put our beady little eyes on it.”

Hird and Philipps examine the footage and other evidence separately before conferring with each other about their conclusions.

Hird opines, “In a way, that’s best, because then we’re not influencing each other’s opinion. With a lot of this user-generated content, when it’s been filmed by the person that’s been in that kind of scenario, you don’t get clean shots of the shark.”

Additionally, says Hird, “There are a lot of sharks within the reef shark family that look really, really similar, and it can be so easy for one person to see it and go, ‘Oh, that looks like a gray reef, that’s a silvertip, that’s a whatever,’ and then you quite rightly go, ‘Well, yeah, it kind of does,’ because you don’t have the best picture of it. So, you can almost miss the details. But when we see them independently, you are then digging into it a lot more, you’re watching it back a lot more, because you don’t have someone like, in my case, someone with the experience that Kinga’s got.”

Philipps responds to this with a self-deprecating, you’ve-got-a-ton-of-experience-yourself expression.

Hird maintains, “If Kinga turned around and said to me, ‘Oh, that’s a “this” shark,’ I’d say, ‘Yup, cool, no worries.’ So, seeing them independently gives us a chance to [be] a bit more rigorous, scientific, rather than decision by a group. We get to say, ‘That’s what I reckon’ and there can be discussion afterwards. And we can also say, ‘Actually, I don’t agree with you, I still think it was this.’”

Were there any sharks involved in biting humans that surprised the investigators? On another 2026 SHARK WEEK program, nurse sharks – which are considered comparatively docile – are written off as “harmless,” but one of them does something that has the species included on WHAT SHARK ATTACKED?

Hird reports, “I wasn’t surprised by any of them, personally. The usual culprits were still there. But a shark, any shark, any species of shark or ray, has teeth. And just like any human can potentially bite you, be it a baby or an eighty-year-old, any shark species can potentially bite humans.

“Those of us in the know, especially those of us who have worked in aquariums, where nurse sharks are quite common, [have found that] they have got a shocking bite. It is so nasty. I’ve seen [aquarium workers] that have gone in to feed nurse sharks, and the nurse shark has sucked the wetsuit off their body and bitten a clean hole through the wetsuit, exposing their body underneath. So, they’ve got a serious chunk to it. And I’ve been nipped by the smaller ones as well in my day. So, there were the usual suspects there, but there certainly wasn’t any one I was surprised to see.”

Philipps nods agreement. “Definitely. I think the audience is probably more surprised than we were, because those of us who have spent a long time interacting with sharks, we know that, just like the tiniest, sweetest little dog can bite you in the right environment, it is the same thing with sharks. I think that clip that you’re referring to in our show, if you really break that down, that was incredibly human-created, that situation.”

“Big-time,” Hird affirms.

Unlike some sharks who are territorial or view mammals as potential prey, it’s likely the nurse shark in question was startled and simply wanted more information. However, lacking the ability to reach out with limbs, sharks primarily investigate by taste.

Hird observes, “With nurse sharks, you’d be lucky if it’s awake most of the time. But any animal that doesn’t have hands, if you go and put your hand in front of its face and see what it does. Squirrel, budgerigar [parakeet] – in that particular bit of footage, that swimmer was unfortunate, but the nurse shark probably didn’t even see her, to be honest. They’re not smart.”

Philipps elaborates that the shark may have been expecting the human to provide a fish. “You can also see that footage, and it wasn’t mentioned, but those of us who are aware, and if you know, you know, that was obviously a situation where the sharks are regularly habituated to humans, probably with food, and they’re incentivized, and just that environment with the nurse sharks, you don’t go into an ocean and see that in the natural world without some kind of human involvement. So, those sharks were really conditioned to expect food from humans and, unfortunately, sometimes those are the results of those times of situations.”

Beyond providing SHARK WEEK programming, the research done for WHAT SHARK ATTACKED? has implications for shark preservation, Philipps says. “In every single instance, the more data that you can collect, the better. We’re looking at these situations from all types of perspectives, from the environment, the time of year, the exact location, you’re really looking at data that you can use and apply to situations across the world.”

Philipps continues. “Not in this one, but in a lot of these shows, we are actually doing everything from biopsies to tagging. So, we are always gathering data. But when it’s shows like this, it’s mostly information-heavy, and we’re deducing what shark attacked, you are gathering data, you are gathering information, and that is always useful.”

Hird concurs. “And there is a global shark attack file as well, but it doesn’t get much information into it because, as we said, the events are so, so rare. But that’s really useful, because the goal for all of us is for there to be no negative interactions between sharks and humans. And if we can be in a position where we’re not doing destructive and moronic things like drum lines and shark nets and culls and that are just bonkers, stupid, but instead we have enough info to be able to say, ‘Okay, these are the behaviors we need to watch out for, these are the colors you need to wear or not wear, this is the place you need to swim,’ whatever, then that just means that we can get these numbers smaller and smaller and smaller, until we get to a point where people go, ‘Shark attack? What’s a shark attack?’”

And what do both Philipps and Hird most want viewers to get out of WHAT SHARK ATTACKED?

Philipps replies, “I think SHARK WEEK walks the line so beautifully of entertainment and information. So, the key is always to get people to watch. And obviously, for us, especially because we’re scientists and conservationists, we want people to take away, the numbers and the statistics are always in your favor [as a human] and, even though we are showing you what happens when there is an incident when there’s an encounter between sharks and people, I think Fish and I say at the end of the show, the chances of something like this happening are so very, very, very low.

“We know that the media hypes it up every time something like this happens, and I think a lot of people think it happens more than it does. But the reality of something like this happening is unbelievably low. So, I think that’s the main takeaway. The ocean is a beautiful place.”

Hird seconds this. “Hell, yeah.”

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SHARK WEEK: ULTIMATE SHARK DIVE: Professional cliff diver Molly Carlson talks about cage diving – Exclusive Interview

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 03:29:14 +0000

SHARK WEEK’s ULTIMATE SHARK DIVE premieres on Discovery Channel and its streaming platforms on Thursday, July 30. The documentary pairs professional cliff diver Molly Carlson with shark expert Paul de Gelder for a segment set in the Bahamas.

Here, Carlson performs the highest freefall dive in SHARK WEEK history, leaping from a helicopter fifty feet down into a Plexiglas cage situated in a reef populated by multiple types of sharks.

Carlson gets on Zoom to discuss her adventure. She is wearing a Red Bull baseball cap for the occasion, in honor of her frequent work with the energy drink brand, which frequently collaborates with SHARK WEEK.

Becoming a professional diver has been Carlson’s goal from an early age. She was a Youth Olympian and then came in fourth for the Canadian team for the 2016 Olympics. Unfortunately, only the top two get to go.

After that, Carlson relates, “I decided to go to Florida State University and do a diving scholarship. I absolutely loved it. And then I switched over to high diving after my four years at FSU.”

Carlson describes being approached to do a segment of SHARK WEEK as “a pretty special moment. I’ve always had this fear of sharks, and Red Bull and Discovery always have these insane ideas, and they came to me together and said, ‘Would you ever by chance jump into a shark cage?’

“My first thought was, ‘Absolutely not. What is this conversation? I’m terrified of sharks.’ And then, the more I thought about it, I was like, ‘This could be such a cool opportunity to just face fears head on and to see what I could do.’ I didn’t expect to attempt a world’s first out of it, so yeah. I can’t believe how it all went down.”

Was there greater danger from sharks that were swarming and might possibly become agitated by the sudden appearance of a human in their midst, or from the possibility of hitting the edge of the cage?

“I one hundred percent thought that the sharks would be the greater danger, but the team that Discovery paired me with [had] so many professionals in one spot that I had this weird confidence that I would be okay around the sharks.

“I was the only cliff-diving professional on the trip, and I had to be super-locked in. Luckily, when I sent in the measurements for the cage, I made it extra-big to make sure that I had very minimal chance of hitting the cage, because obviously, that is detrimental. For me, it was important to have enough risk, while still making a cage not the size of a little laptop screen, so I could land on it. So, it was definitely the perfect size to have a little bit of danger, but yeah, it definitely looked small from up in that helicopter.”

Carlson explains that, at fifty feet, there is almost no danger of knocking herself out on impact with the water. She typically dives from cliffs at a height of twenty meters, or approximately sixty-six feet.

“I decided to pick the fifteen-meter height, because I’m super-comfortable with it. I’ve never seen any knockouts off this height, and so, for me, it was just like, with all the variables – the moving ocean, the moving cage, the moving helicopter – I wanted just to pick a height that felt comfortable to me, so no matter how I landed in the water, I knew that I could swim out of it, sharks or not, so it was just the perfect height to play on, you could say.”

Carlson was briefed on what types of sharks would likely be in the vicinity, and that she’d also have experts in the water to help her. “In the Bahamas, they knew there’s be somebody between me and the reef sharks, as well as nurse sharks. So, when I got to go down there, I saw a few species, which was really cool. No Great Whites, that’s for sure – thank goodness. No bull sharks. I was very happy about that, They scare me, too,” she laughs.

What Carlson hopes viewers get out of ULTIMATE SHARK DIVE ties in with her own motives for making the leap. “I definitely struggle with my mental health, I live with anxiety every single day. And so, for me to have gone into such a scene with so much weird anxiety but learn how to just work through it and do it anyway, I hope people take away from this that fear is allowed to be there and you’re allowed to be scared, but that doesn’t mean you can’t achieve your dreams. So, that was really my mission on this project.”

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SHARK WEEK: BIGGEST MAKO ON EARTH: Shark expert Kendyl Berna on the fastest swimming sharks – Exclusive Interview

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 08:29:06 +0000

In Discovery Channel’s SHARK WEEK, which this year runs on the network Sunday July 26 through Saturday August 1, the documentary BIGGEST MAKO ON EARTH premieres Monday, July 27. Makos are believed to be the fastest-swimming shark species; they can also attain great size.

Shark expert Kendyl Berna (pronounced Burr-NAY), veteran shark tagger Keith Poe, and marine biologists Dr. Tristan Guttridge and Clara Calatayud search the waters off the coasts of Southern California and Mexico for some truly enormous animals.

Berna, a Southern California native, is a marine biologist and documentarian. She founded the marine conservation organization Beyond the Reef, which is based in the British Virgin Islands. She gets on a Zoom call to talk about BIGGEST MAKO ON EARTH.

“This is my fourth year of going out to the Southern California area and studying [mako sharks],” Berna relates, “so it’s been really interesting to get four years of data and observations out there. This year in particular, we had a marine heat wave, and so the makos were much more abundant earlier than they usually are. We filmed this in May [if 2926], which very often is kind of a shoulder month for it being warm enough for makos. This year, there were a ton of them, because they have a ton of prey availability and the conditions are perfect for makos right now.”

Big adult makos prefer deep water. The Southern California Bight, the marine trench between the mainland and the Channel Islands, is estimated to be 3,300 feet deep in some places, which makes it an ideal zone for large sharks, despite some lingering poison.

Berna explains, “There are so many things that make [the Bight] a good mako spot, but in particular, this town that I grew up in, it’s called Palos Verdes, it’s on the mainland and it infamously has a very large DDT dump.” In fact, the Bight was designated as a Superfund clean-up site in 1989.

The coastal shelf starts at only twenty feet deep but, Berna says, “It goes really, really deep quite quickly. And so, the Bight is an incredibly diverse area that hosts a lot of juveniles. It has a tremendous amount of sea lions and seals.”

For big sharks, this means “It has good prey availability. So, it’s an interesting area for these species. Great Whites, for example, like to be more coastal, whereas the makos like to be very pelagic. We think the makos can go up to eight hundred meters [approximately half a mile] deep. So, makos are really existing in quite a bit of depth in the water column.”

However, Berna adds, the big makos do not have to remain in the deep all the time. If the sea floor is higher in some parts of their migration, they can readily adjust.

“The fact that they can go from zero feet, or let’s call it plus-twenty, because I’ve seen them breach pretty high, means they can go from the surface to eight hundred meters of depth pretty easily. That’s all within their realm. And so, they can exist in any of those areas, and there are always deep areas in their routes.

“The route that we’re studying in this show is from off the coast of Mexico, which borders California, up to Southern/Central-ish California. And there are deep areas in that entire route.”

BIGGEST MAKO ON EARTH mentions that makos eat ten percent of their body weight. Is that per day or per meal?

“That’s thought to be per meal. For example, Great White sharks are known for doing gorge events. So, if you’ve ever seen a deceased whale that has a bunch of sharks on it, those are doing gorge feeding. And so, they are eating a tremendous amount in one sitting, where it’s thought that makos need a lot more frequent meals.

“They’re the fastest shark in the ocean, they can travel up to forty-five miles an hour in bursts, and so, they’re expending a lot of energy. It’s thought that they sort of have a quick metabolism in that sense. And so, one of the things we were looking into in this episode was, can a mako in Southern California that has access to something like a dead marine mammal, such as a whale, be eating more in one sitting than a mako typically would be? And, if so, can that sustain it a little longer, can that cause it to get bigger, sort of just seeing what the marine mammal factor could lead to as far as changes in their behavior.”

While finding bigger makos attests to the health and longevity of those individual sharks, Berna cautions that this doesn’t necessarily mean the overall health of the marine area is improving.

“That’s a hard question. The fact that makos in California are getting bigger means there’s an abundance of prey. And that sounds like a really good thing, because it sounds like there’s more prey in the environment. But the fact that it’s warmer, there’s more prey, might also mean that we’re more likely to have outbreaks of disease and algae blooms and things like that.

“So, saying they’re getting bigger isn’t necessarily saying that it’s better for the entire environment, it’s just saying that this particular region is hosting makos in a prey-available state. But I would say there’s always a give and take with that. It’s sort of like saying, ‘Climate change is good for me, because I can wear a tank top.’ But then there are also very bad things with it. So, I would say it might be good for the species in the short term.”

Berna notes that finding bigger makos may possibly mean more sharks really are growing larger; it doesn’t mean that Berna and her team are using more sophisticated technology to find them. “We’re just chumming [putting bait in the water] and knowing where they go and what conditions they like. Keith Poe has basically spent the last twenty years on the water most days of the week, looking at the makos and Great White sharks, and he’s really good at knowing where they’re going to be.”

For BIGGEST MAKO ON EARTH, Berna adds, they are not even tagging sharks – tagging is a method of putting a small physical tracking device on a shark to better understand the animal’s migration habits. “When you do tag sharks, you use a satellite tag, an acoustic tag, a physical tag for some of the younger sharks that you just want to do mark-recapture with. So, I wouldn’t say the technology is really changing. But this year just happened to be warm enough for them, and we’re in the right area where they usually are. So, we lucked out for SHARK WEEK’s sake in being in the right spot at the right time this year. But I wouldn’t say it was thanks to any new technology.”

Berna goes into the water in a shark cage; Poe doesn’t go in the water at all. Would Berna be comfortable going into the water without a cage, the way some of the camera operators do?

“It depends on the shark. Keith Poe has a joke where he says he will never get in the water, because he owes too many debts in there. I think he feels like he’s tagged way too many sharks, and they’re going to come for him eventually if he ever steps foot in the water.

“But it depends on the shark. You can generally tell how aggressive they are, you can tell how fed they are. So, if a shark first shows up to the boat, probably not. Once you get a sense of it, and once it’s come up to the cage enough times, it’s bit the tuna that you’re offering it enough times, you’ve kind of both tired it out and got it used to your presence, then potentially yes. Which I have done before – I have been in the water with makos without a cage, but it’s something that you need to get to know their level of aggression at that moment a bit before you would want to do that.”

Apart from scientific knowledge for its own sake, is there a practical application for the information Berna gathers during BIGGEST MAKO ON EARTH?

“That’s basically like saying, what is science good for?”

In fact, Berna points out, it’s good for lots of things. “You need data to inform any policy. So, similarly to my nonprofit Beyond the Reef in the British Virgin Islands, they had pretty much no data whatsoever, and you need to collect the baseline data in order to know what’s changing and what you need to protect. For example, if you find that you have an endangered species that’s thriving there, then you know that we cannot put up a building here, because we need these mangroves.

“The same goes for sort of any research. You’re figuring out how this species interacts with its environment, and how it changes. That helps to inform policy, and also just baseline research. Because all these species overlap with each other and interact, and sharks also are very much an indicator species, they’re apex predators, they sit at the top of the food chain, and so their health and their changes have a big impact on the environment, and can tell us what’s going on.”

And what would Berna most like people to know about BIGGEST MAKO ON EARTH?

“Not many people are doing things with makos – I think that’s what makes it such an interesting show each year. They’re generally not that easy to find. People don’t interact with them that often, because they’re a deeper-water species for the most part. So, I think they’re one of the smartest sharks out there, they’re the fastest shark, they’re just a really cool prehistoric-looking ancient predator.

“So, I think getting to work with and film makos is a rare opportunity. I might be biased. I work with completely other sharks in my research in the British Virgin Islands, and I love all those sharks, too, but I do think that makos are probably the most fun species to watch, just based on the way they act.”

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SHARK WEEK: Shark expert Paul de Gelder on INVASION OF THE MEGA SHARKS and BULL SHARK DINNER BELL – Exclusive Interview

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sat, 25 Jul 2026 17:50:14 +0000

It is once again time for Discovery Channel’s SHARK WEEK, which this year runs from Sunday, July 26 through Saturday, August 1, with twenty new programs premiering on the network and thereafter available on Discovery’s streaming platforms.

Discovery Channel was so generous in providing interviews – four in all, with five individuals – that it’s effectively Shark Week here at Assignment X as well.

Shark expert Paul de Gelder participates in three of this year’s SHARK WEEK documentaries: INVASION OF THE MEGA SHARKS, premiering Sunday, July 26, BULL SHARK DINNER BELL, premiering Monday, July 27, and ULTIMATE SHARK DIVE, premiering Thursday, July 30.

De Gelder is a veteran of the Australian military, spending five years in the Army Airborne Division and then becoming a Navy bomb disposal “clearance” diver for the next five years.

In 2009, on a Navy dive in Sydney Harbor, de Gelder was attacked by a bull shark and lost his right forearm and right calf. While some people would have turned their back on the ocean entirely after this, upon recovering, de Gelder developed a fascination with all sharks and has become a passionate advocate for their protection.

Contrary to the implication of its title, gigantic Great Whites are not mounting an incursion. However, researchers are finding more and more sizable members of the species.

The biggest known Great White shark has been dubbed “Deep Blue,” a twenty-plus-foot female who has been the subject of several documentaries. Deep Blue makes her home in the Pacific Ocean between Mexico and Hawai’i.

But another Great White of almost equal size, a twenty-footer nicknamed “Big Rose,” has been spotted off the east coast of North America. Much of INVASION OF THE MEGA SHARKS involves the efforts of de Gelder, and a team that also includes Dr. Neil Hammerschlag, to locate Big Rose in the waters of Nova Scotia.

De Gelder explains the main reason that really massive sharks are not seen more often is that most don’t get a chance to live long enough to achieve their potential growth.

“It just means that they’ve reached a certain age, and they’ve had enough food to support that size. The problem is that, with the commercial fishing industry and illegal and the unregulated fishing industries, [the sharks are] just getting caught up in by-catch and getting killed before they can get to that size. Because we’re competing with them for the same food sources. So, unfortunately, we very rarely get to see sharks, especially Great Whites, at full size, at twenty feet and above.”

While all mammals – “Except for the platypus,” de Gelder reminds us – bear live young, and all birds lay eggs, some fish species lay eggs and others are live-bearers. This dichotomy applies to sharks as well.

“Sharks like the nurse shark, the Port Jackson, the horn shark do lay eggs and attach them to rocky outcrops and seaweed and stuff. But sharks like the tiger shark, the bull shark, the Great White, they all give live birth. Different species do it different ways. There are some sharks like the grey nurse sharks where, inside the mother shark, the shark embryos, once they get to a certain size and develop, they’ll actually consume each other inside the womb. The strongest survives.”

Great Whites give live birth to litters of between two and ten “pups.” While no one has yet managed to document exactly where Great Whites are birthing their young, “With INVASION OF THE MEGA SHARKS, off the coast of Nova Scotia, we did discover one of the smallest Great White sharks that I’ve ever seen. Nothing has been fully decided on where these sharks are giving birth, [but] that’s a pretty clear indication that, somewhere in that area, Great White sharks are birthing.

“The smallest one I’ve seen is about three foot, and that was in Australia. So, there’s not just one Great White birthing place for the whole world. They’re going to be all over the place, because a lot of these sharks don’t migrate between different countries. They stay in the same country. They might even stay on the same coastline of the same country.”

De Gelder notes that, while he finds it “very intrusive,” scientists have managed to track where certain sharks are giving birth via in vitro implants. “Basically, they take a shark and they implant a tracking device into its uterus, through its female parts, and then, when that shark gives birth, it all comes out with all the babies, and then they can track it. I don’t think they’ve done it with a Great White yet.”

With many species of shark, including Great Whites, as they get larger, they prefer deeper water. “Because at that size,” de Gelder relates, “they have a different food source. Up until about eight to ten feet, the Great Whites are still hunting fish, rays, squid, things like that. But as they get bigger, they need a higher-density caloric diet. So, now they’re looking at sea lions, seals, dolphins. And so, they need to be in the areas where those larger species of animal are.”

But aren’t those larger animals more surface-bound, due to their need to breathe air directly?

“They are, and that’s why they have that certain technique of breaching, whereby they start deep, and you would have seen it on AIR JAWS, where they breach fully out of the water, using a surprise attack from underneath them.”

Then again, Great Whites also like to eat giant squid, which are dwellers of the deep. “There’s this place called the White Shark Café in the middle of the Pacific Ocean [between Baja, Mexico and Hawai’i]. These Great Whites are out into the middle of the ocean, and they were diving really deep and then coming back up, and [the researchers] couldn’t figure out what they were doing. And they’ve decided that they’re going down super-deep and hunting the squid in that area. And they’ll all go out there at the same time of year, hunt in the same area, and then they’ll go on their way off to their different grounds of either mating or pupping or whatever they’re doing.”

BULL SHARK DINNER BELL has apex predator specialist Rosie Moore joining de Gelder in an investigation of what bull sharks do and don’t like to eat. Without getting too spoilery, it seems like humans aren’t the sharks’ first choice. On the other hand, bull sharks have earned a reputation for being aggressive, so what causes them to bite people?

“It’s what we call an investigatory bite,” de Gelder says. “A lot of times, bull sharks are hunting in very murky water, be it a river, the ocean near the mouth of a river, or in the ocean after a heavy rainfall, after all the detritus is being swept into the ocean, that creates a murky environment where the bull sharks thrive at hunting. And they can’t see. So, the bull sharks aren’t eating people, but they are biting people. They come in, they give what’s called an investigatory bite, and then generally they let go when they realize it’s not food.”

Even though it’s not direct predation, the size and force of that investigatory bite can do considerable damage to a human on the receiving end, as de Gelder can attest. BULL SHARK DINNER BELL required him to get into the water with multiple bull sharks. Given his personal experience, does he feel any more apprehension working with bull sharks than he does with other shark species?

De Gelder nods emphatically, then laughs. “Absolutely. Bull sharks are my least favorite sharks to work with. We have a certain relationship, but I just don’t trust them at all.”

Besides making sure that the water is clear, so the bull sharks can see he’s not what they most want to eat, does de Gelder have added precautions – maybe someone else offscreen doing something to keep the sharks at a distance?

“No, there’s nothing like that. It’s just all up to me. I’ve been fortunate over the many years that I’ve been doing this to learn from the best in the world – the best scientists, the best shark experts, the best shark handlers – and so, I just absorb their knowledge like a sponge. And I’ve always been very good at replicating the things that I see. Never great sitting in a classroom trying to learn, but if I can see someone else doing it, I can usually copy what they do.

“And so, over the years, I’ve learned how to handle sharks when they approach me – where do I touch them, how do I push them away, how do I utilize my own body to keep myself safe from them, using fins, using poles, any manner of a thing like that. So, while I don’t trust [bull sharks], I do know how to manage them.”

While it is covered in minutes onscreen, there is a period of about an hour of real time when the company loses track of one of its members in the water, with the very real possibility that the person has been attacked. The fears of de Gelder and company are captured on camera. Is there an imperative for the cinematographers to keep rolling, no matter what?

“Yeah. You never put the camera down. Always shoot everything. And then later, they decide what they want to put in there. Not everything makes it into the shows. I had an experience in Nova Scotia for INVASION OF THE MEGA SHARKS where myself and my cameraman had to get out of that little homemade cage we had, but it wasn’t allowed to be put in the show, because we weren’t supposed to get out of the cage,” de Gelder laughs.

De Gelder is unabashed in his love for sharks. “They’re pretty amazing animals. They’re very special, and people just kind of throw them all into the same pot, and ‘sharks are dangerous. There are over five hundred different species of sharks, so what are we talking about here? Knowledge dispels fear. The more we learn about these animals, the less we have to fear from them. If we know where they are, we can stay away from them. Therefore, we both get to coexist. And that’s what the world’s supposed to be like.”

What else would de Gelder most like viewers to get out of his SHARK WEEK documentaries this year?

“I just want people to be safe. I want people to understand that, while sharks are dangerous, and the ocean is a dangerous, wild realm, we need to take the onus [of staying safe] upon ourselves. We have the wealth of the world’s knowledge in a few keystrokes, we’ve got the Internet, we can find out if there have been shark attacks in the area. Take some of that responsibility and stop pointing the finger at the sharks.”

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