Eye of the Beast is a 2007 Syfy movie starring James Van Der Beek as an oceanographer whose journey to Lake Winnipeg to investigate fish disappearing leads to him and the beautiful sheriff exploring the possibility of a dangerous giant squid killing the fish and moving on to attacking people.
Tropes in the Movie:
- Angry White Man: Gunnar's crewmen Spider and Jordy are full of sneering comments about how the First Nations fishermen get more legal deference than their white counterparts and keep accusing mixed-race local sheriff Kat of betraying them for the tribe with no evidence despite her demonstrated concern for the whole community. Both men get a Death by Racism.
- Do Not Go Gentle: Will and Gunnar's respective sailors are all dragged to their deaths by the squid's tentacles after stabbing or shooting at them for prolonged periods.
- Foreshadowing: Dan tells resident Jerkass Jordy that the pincers in the giant squid's tentacle could subject him to a Tear Off Your Face fate if he goes hunting it unprepared, without Dan's help, and Jordy does indeed die that way later on despite listening to Dan's plan.
- Harbinger of Impending Doom: Robbie is attacked by the giant squid in the opening scene and is later found floating in a life preserver, weakly giving a partial explanation for what happened to him before dying and having a telltale squid tooth embedded in his leg.
- Inadvertent Entrance Cue: Dan denies Gunnar's suggestion that he's only helping hunt the squid for scientific glory, pointing out he could have gotten that from the tentacle they already have. Gunnar asks his real reason, Dan's crush Kat, who has an It's Personal investment in killing the squid, walks into the room.
- Non-Malicious Monster: The squid only becomes a maneater once its normal food supply of fish runs out, and is implied to have been living in the lake for a long time without hurting anyone.
- Skeptic No Longer: Dan's Know-Nothing Know-It-All Obstructive Bureaucrat bosses and the local white fishing families who have never had a confirmed sighting of the squid all deny its existence right up until Dan's fellow scientists see a satellite sonar image and Gunnar and his wife Jen narrowly escape a Doomed Contrarian attack by the squid and cut off a tentacle to show to their friends, rapidly convincing everyone.
- Someone to Remember Him By: Jordy's girlfriend offhandedly mentions needing a location for a baby shower in an early scene, and Jordy is dead by the end of the film.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Dan lays out his plan to catch the giant squid between the nets of two boats and kill it in advance, but it fails when one boat's engine goes out and the other boat is attacked and its crew massacred, leading to one of the remaining fishermen nervously asking if he has a Plan B and Dan making one up that works on the fly without explaining much as he works.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Let's see, there's a giant, murderous sea creature whose first victim is a teenage girl named Krissy, the locals don't want to believe the truth because it would destroy a vital industry and seems too unprecedented to be true, but change their minds after the creature shows itself in a conspicuous, broad daylight attack right by the shore, and a Power Trio of the sheriff, an expert in marine life, and a Jerk with a Heart of Gold fisherman save the day. The similarities to Jaws 1 are by no means subtle.