There are a number of things to recommend about Shark Night, which is unfortunate. Had there been a little more care in the first act, had there been nudity and had the majority of the shark effects been practical, they might have had an engagingly stupid B movie on their hands. Alas, the film comes close, but there is no cigar. Sara Paxton, Donal Logue, Joel David Moore and a bunch of random teenagers star in Shark Night, and our review of the Blu-ray follows after the jump.

Sharks are the ultimate predators, who have inspired terror and fascination in humans for centuries, even inspiring the Discovery Channel to launch Shark Week programming. The new horror thriller Shark Night 3D plays on those fears with a suspense-filled story about a group of college students hunted by various varieties of the hungry, flesh-eaters. When their boat malfunctions and they are stranded in the middle of the lake, with no way to call for help, they struggle to fend off the sharks and stay alive long enough to reach the safety of dry land.

At the film’s press day, actor Chris Zylka did this exclusive interview with Collider, in which he talked about playing the cocky jokester of the group, making sure his character was likeable enough so that audiences will route for him to survive, how humans can sometimes be just as terrifying as sharks, that his favorite type of shark is the hammerhead, what a pleasure it was to work with director David Ellis, and the difference between working with animatronic sharks versus CG piranhas for Piranha 3DD (due out in November). He also talked about the experience of playing Flash Thompson in The Amazing Spider-Man, and what it was like to work with director Marc Webb. Check out what he had to say after the jump:

In Shark Night 3D, a sexy summer weekend turns into a blood-soaked nightmare for a group of college students hunted by blood-thirsty sharks. After they arrive by boat at her family’s Louisiana lake cabin, Sara (Sara Paxton) and her friends strip down to their swimsuits for a weekend of fun in the sun that quickly turns very, very wrong when they discover that hundreds of hungry, flesh-eating predators have been let loose in the lake. As they face one gruesome attack after another, and their options to make it out alive dwindle, reaching the safety of dry land seems less and less likely.

At the film’s press day, actress Sara Paxton did this exclusive interview with Collider, in which she talked about how flattered she was not to have to audition for the role, how emotionally invested audiences will get in the characters and their relationships, how much fun she and her co-stars had working together, the challenges of shooting underwater, how neurotic she was over having to wear a bikini throughout the entire film, and that the a universal fear of what’s lurking underneath the water below you contributes to making this film so scary. She also talked about her next film, The Innkeepers, which is due out in October, and why she loves doing genre work. Check out what she had to say after the jump:

If you didn’t get your fill of 3D dumb-fun horror with Final Destination 5 then get ready for Shark Night 3D!  Teens + shark = potentially satisfying film.  In the first clip from the film, we see a couple of guys feed Katherine McPhee to the underwater beasts.  Fun fact: sharks are immune from McPheever.

Hit the jump to check out the clip.  The film also stars Sinqua Walls, Chris Carmack, Alyssa Diaz, Joel David Moore and Sara Paxton.  Shark Night 3D opens September 2nd.

The first trailer for Shark Night 3D has gone online.  It looks just as cheesy as you’d expect and it looks ultra-faithful to horror movie tropes in that the black guy clearly dies first.  Now the issue with a movie about sharks attacking hapless teens at a lake house is that the obvious solution is to simply not go back in the water after the first shark attack.  But it looks like the teens are being forced back in the lake (that’s right, someone transplanted sharks into a lake) as a Hostel-like torture game.  And now that we’ve sent torture porn underwater, hopefully we can shoot it into space.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  Shark Night 3D opens September 2nd.