A fierce cyclone storm forces a commercial plane to crash as well as a fishing vessel to sink. The survivors of both catastrophes find themselves stuck on a small boat with a bunch of other folks in the middle of the shark-infested sea. Things soon turn dire after food and water supplies begin to dwindle. Director/co-writer Rene Cardona Jr. does an expert job of crafting a strong mood of pervasive dread and groom, maintains a grim tone throughout, and wrings a good deal of tension from the unsparingly bleak premise. Moreover, Cardona Jr. presents a dark and despairing portrait of both the savage fury of unmerciful nature and the base desperation and shocking monstrousness of mankind in an increasingly hopeless life or death situation: The people stuck on the boat not only kill and eat a small dog, but also eventually resort to cannibalism to prevent death from starvation. The refreshing lack of any sappy sentiment and the overall blunt'n'basic quality of the filmmaking give this picture a certain raw impact and potency. The solid cast of familiar European exploitation faces rates as another substantial asset: Andres Garcia as a heroic ship captain, Hugo Stiglitz as the stalwart airplane pilot, Carroll Baker as a pampered rich lady, Lionel Stander as a crusty businessman, Arthur Kennedy as a selfless and disapproving priest, Olga Karlatos as a pregnant woman, and Mario Almada as a resourceful fisherman. Leon Sanchez's proficient cinematography makes the most out of the cramped and claustrophobic boat setting. Riz Ortolani's funky pulsating score hits the right-on groovy throbbing spot. Nasty stuff for sure, but still gripping and crudely satisfying just the same.

Cyclone is basically a mash up of two previous Rene Cardona Jr. movies, Survive and Tintorera. It takes Survive's cannibalistic struggle for survival and throws in the occasional shark attack in a vain attempt to liven things up. The plot traces a group of people who become stranded on a tourist boat after a hurricane.This film has so many problems it is difficult to know where to begin. First of all, the hurricane in the film literally appears out of nowhere, catching the authorities and boats at sea off guard. Don't storms like that usually take days to form? Furthermore, shots of a plane crashing during the storm are unconvincing, as they were clearly taken during clear weather.The film suffers from a serious lack of dramatic tension, as much of the film consists of people sitting around the boat and complaining. Their actions are largely reactive, giving us little investment in the characters. Even the scenes where they resort to cannibalism fall flat.The sharks only turn up in the last ten minutes of the movie, with shark attacks just as laughable as their counterparts in Tintorera. The sharks are clearly mauling ragged clothing with some meat wrapped in it to get them to bite it.Simply put, don't waste your time.

Rene Cardon's grim, but not entirely terrible rip-off of JAWS, HURRICANE, AIRPORT, etc. A plane crashes and the survivors are rescued by a pleasure boat. There's too many people on board, so...it's gross and very silly. Nevermind the fact that the production values stink, it's actually kind of bizarre wondering why the great Arthur Kennedy is in this thing. Is this the same multi-Oscar nominated actor from SOME CAME RUNNING, TRIAL and LAWRENCE OF ARABIA?!? Carroll Baker appears as well(and is way too old at this point to be seen in a bathing suit). Clearly these faded stars needed a paycheck. The best that can be said is that it's better than Cardon's SURVIVE! Lionel Stander is in it too.

Certainly an intense and at times campy little cult gem from Rene Cardon Jr. I'm a fan of the disaster film. Coming into this ,I wasn't quite prepared for some of what I saw. It has an interesting cast of European cult films, including Olga Karlatos from ZOMBIE. Just think of your standard disaster film with some shocking exploitation scenes. A friend told me after viewing that the filmmakers used real corpses to feed the sharks! Don't know if those folks donated there bodies to science, but even so its an entertaining obscurity. Warning to anyone with a weak stomach as this is quite out there in some scenes,in the gross-out department. As well as anybody who might own a poodle, you might like to turn away in 1 scene. All that said, CYCLONE, is much better than Cardonas other more known disaster film, SURVIVE.