Publication Date: 07-15-2026

Sharknado: The 4th Awakens (2016) review

Dir. Anthony C. Ferrante

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★

One has to laugh, not at the concepts or the places Sharknado: The 4th Awakens dares to go, but the fact that it successfully exhausted the idea and potential of its premise so much in the third film — going as far as to saving the White House from a “sharknado” as well as the Daytona 500 — that the only thing the series’ screenwriter Thunder Levin thought would make for ideal progression is to copy, steal, and cut and paste ideas from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Call it “homage” if you want to ignore or mask the truth, but when your once-original, chuckle-inducing concept can’t even be sustained by its own creative material, you’ve effectively run out of ideas.

This is the fourth installment to the long-winded franchise that began in 2013 after going from an unsold film at the Cannes Film Festival to a pop culture phenomenon on SyFy. It continues to serve as one of those films that’s not cheesy because of its budget-constraints nor sensibilities, but because of its own creative laziness. With each passing installment, the Sharknado franchise has grown more and more insufferable, and this one, while not being the worst, certainly is the most forgettable and boring one yet. Not to mention, with characters still speaking almost entirely in catchphrases, the narrative structure remaining almost exactly the same, and a laundry list of cameos from celebrities with presumably nothing better to do, Sharknado: The 4th Awakens only exists to show how desperately this film really, really, really wants to be an undeserving, moronic pop culture staple.

And from the looks of the trending topics on Twitter and the incessant hashtag campaigns, the public has made it just that yet again. The 4th Awakens takes place five years after the last Sharknado attack that left much of the continental United States ravaged by its devastation. The reason being is a company known as “Astro-X,” run by CEO Aston Reynolds (Tommy Davidson), has funneled billions of dollars into a series of pods that have been able to operate in space, zapping and destroying any potential Sharknado that forms. In the meantime, Fin Shepard (Ian Ziering) has spent the last few years raising his and April’s (Tara Reid) son, enjoying a life of quietness. Meanwhile, April has been hard at work getting her recently amputated hand to function as a chainsaw, a knife, and a lightsaber to utilize in the face of danger.

When a sharknado occurs again, the United States realizes that Astro-X’s company hasn’t completely eliminated the threat. As a result, varying sources of nature make up these “nados,” such as sand, lightning, hail, and at one point, even cows, causing mass destruction. Fin, April, their son, as well as Fin’s father Gilbert (David Hasselhoff), in response, all team up to eradicate sharknados once again in hopes to return to their life of peace and stability.

Sharknado: The 4th Awakens is almost depressing in how ordinary it becomes; it kickstarts the action about six or seven minutes in, leaving no time to get reacquainted with these characters or to witness any buildup. Clear as a sunny day is the fact that this concept was never meant to sustain four films. Its formula sets it up for complete and total failure once more installments are made; the key is to continue to “up the ante” and raise the bar with each sequel, but when you’ve successfully capitalized on all that the concept could sustain in the last film and have to go as far as to borrow ideas, an opening scene, and a title from one of the most popular franchises in the world, you’ve only proven yourself to be a colossal creative failure.

Do Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, Thunder Levin, and director Anthony C. Ferrante really have nothing better to do than to work with SyFy and The Asylum company to churn these films out year-after-year? I ask this trying my damnedest not to be condescending, but at what point do you look around at the projects you’re putting out, the things you’re requested to do and say in these installments, and recognize your energy is going into nothing more than material made with no other purpose other than immediate gratification? The end results have been nothing but consistent embarrassments for everyone involved, with the franchise’s highest honor being the fact that it’s likely the worst franchise of any kind of the decade and one of the most monotonous and contemptible cash-cows ever made.

My review of Sharknado (2013)
My review of Sharknado 2: The Second One
My review of Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!

Starring: Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, David Hasselhoff, Tommy Davison, and Al Roker. Directed by: Anthony C. Ferrante.